Essex Center garners safe blood pressure award

ELIZABETHTOWN — The Essex Center here has won a national award for keeping the blood pressure of residents at the nursing facility at safe levels.

“A big congratulations goes out to the team at Essex Center, as the 100-bed skilled nursing facility was given Gold-Plus rating under the American Heart Association Target: BP program for 2023,” Director of Corporate Communications Jeffrey Jacomowitz said by email.

PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL

He said Target: BP is a national initiative formed by the American Heart Association and the American Medical Association in response to the high prevalence of uncontrolled blood pressure.

“We always have our residents’ health in mind, both physically and psychologically, and making sure their blood pressure is under control is top three with heart health for seniors and others,” said Essex Center Administrator Tara Vilardo by email.

“So with that being said, I am so proud of our clinical staff for keeping heart health always in mind and making sure their blood pressure and cholesterol numbers are at the levels where they should be.”

The top two are eating the right foods, fruits and vegetables and very little to no sugary or fried foods, and maintaining a healthy weight by doing exercises, Vilardo said.

She said Target: BP helps healthcare organizations and care teams improve blood pressure control rates at no cost through an evidence-based quality improvement program and recognizes organizations committed to improving blood pressure control.

“Some of the blood pressure lowering activities were hydration stations, walking club, weekly psychiatry and psychology services offer strategies for lowering stress and anxiety, meditation activities, in-house physical and occupational therapy, and continuity of care with residents be followed by the same in-house provider,” Vilardo said.

She said all residents of Essex Center were part of the program.

GOLD-PLUS

Gold-Plus recognizes practices that meet the Gold status criteria, which are practices that have 70 percent or more of their adult population with high blood pressure controlled, and also complete four of six evidenced-based blood pressure activities.

Target: BP recognition is based on the NQF Blood Pressure Control measure, which uses the definition of high blood pressure as 140/90 and the general goal was 130/80 during a six month measurement period, Vilardo said.

Target: BP collects total adult patient population, ages 18–85, by race and ethnicity, with a hypertension diagnosis as well as the subset of the patients who have controlled blood pressure.

The award is the highest of four in the Target: BP program.