Hypertension affects 28,000 Islanders
Comprehensive pharmacist care in treatment could save $81 million for P.E.I.
Today (May 17) is World Hypertension Day. In P.E.I., approximately 28,000 people are living with hypertension. Prevalence in 2015 was reported to be 26 per cent in adults and many of those cases are not adequately controlled. Even more concerning, that percentage is expected to rise to 33.2 per cent by 2030. Being able to improve these numbers – even slightly – would result in countless lives saved and benefit our provincial health care system.
But how to do that? P.E.I.’s most accessible health care providers – pharmacists- may have an answer.
A new study shows that comprehensive long-term pharmacist care for P.E.I. with hypertension, including patient education and prescribing, improves health outcomes and will save money for our cashstrapped health care system. Projected cost savings would be more than $81 million if full scope pharmacist care were administered to the full eligible population of P.E.I.
The study looked at alternatives to usual hypertension care, including full scope pharmacist care - making full use of pharmacists’ scope of skills, including prescribing. The analysis shows a real and significant benefit from pharmacist care both in terms of cost savings and health benefits when compared to usual care.
For the first time there is evidence illustrating the significant amount of health care dollars that can be saved by allowing pharmacists to provide full scope of care to Islanders living with hypertension.
In all analyses, the rates for cardiovascular disease and kidney failure are lowest with the full scope of pharmacist care and highest under the usual care regime. The results also highlight the relatively low costs of the program, particularly relative to the costs of treating cardiovascular disease or kidney failure.
Previous research has shown that systolic blood pressure would be reduced by 18.3 mmHg with full scope pharmacist care. When applied to this study, over 30 years, it is estimated that for every five people receiving full scope pharmacist care, one cardiovascular event (defined as stroke, heart attack, angina and heart failure) would be avoided and four years of life would be saved.
When the full eligible population accessing care is considered over 30 years of full scope care, there would be in P.E.I.: 690 fewer strokes; 1,367 fewer heart attacks; 395 fewer cases of angina; 362 fewer instance of heart failure; 9 fewer instances kidney failure; and an additional 5,000 years lived.
Pharmacists are highly accessible primary health care providers. In fact, on average, people see their pharmacist five to seven times more often than their family doctor. Pharmacists work with patients and their physicians to improve health outcomes as members of the health care team. With the infrastructure for these services already in place, we need to ensure pharmacists are able to make use of their full scope of skills in PEI to address the “care gap” in managing hypertension.