Electronic Health Reporter

e-MDs, a leading provider of electronic health records (EHRs) and practice management (PM) solutions, today congratulated Jennifer Brull, M.D., FAAFP, a solo family physician in Kansas and e-MDs customer since 2007, for being named a 2013 Million Hearts Hypertension Control Champion. Dr. Brull was recognized along with eight other public and private practices across the country for success in achieving blood pressure control rates greater than 70 percent.

This is the latest honor for Dr. Brull, who was named a Software Advice EHR All-Star in November 2013 for her use of e-MDs solutions to improve the quality of care for her patients as well as the profitability of her practice. In July 2013, she was one 28 Healthcare IT champions on the local level honored by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), which named her a Health IT Fellow. In April 2011, Dr. Brull became the first physician in Kansas to attest successfully to Meaningful Use of an EHR and was featured in a CMS national meaningful use campaign.

Million Hearts, a national public-private initiative that aims to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by 2017, is co-led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“It is quite an honor to achieve this level of national recognition,” said Dr. Brull. “Our team set out to make a difference in the lives of our patients with hypertension and clearly we did. e-MDs definitely played an important role in making it happen through the documentation and reporting capabilities of its EHR and practice management solutions. Ultimately our goal is to bring every single one of our patients with hypertension – as well as other chronic diseases – under control. This was a great first step.”

The Million Hearts Hypertension Control Challenge is designed to identify practices, clinicians and health systems that have worked with their patients to successfully reduce high blood pressure and improve heart health. Nearly one in three American adults has hypertension, a chronic condition more commonly known as high blood pressure. Fewer than half of those have it under control, which places them at risk of heart disease or stroke, two of the leading causes of death and disability for Americans.

The nine 2013 Hypertension Control Champions were selected after demonstrating that they helped patients achieve control by using either the National Quality Forum (NQF)-endorsed 0018 (controlling blood pressure) measure or a similar measure that could be validated. The NQF 0018 measure captures the percentage of patients 18-85 years of age who had a diagnosis of hypertension and whose blood pressure was adequately controlled (<140/90) during the measurement year, excluding patients with end-stage renal disease, who were pregnant or those admitted to a non-acute inpatient setting during the measurement year.

The 2013 Champions, who together care for more than 8.3 million adult patients, represent a diverse mix of small and large, urban and rural, and private and federal health practices and systems. Together they achieved control rates ranging from 73 percent to more than 90 percent using a variety of proven approaches including:

• Making high blood pressure control a priority at every visit
• Using evidence-based guidelines
• Using health information technology (such as e-MDs) to track blood pressure readings over time, cue team members to talk about blood pressure with patients, and adjust medications in a timely way to safely achieve control
• Staying engaged with patients by offering free blood pressure checks, in-home nurse visits, and medication checks by pharmacists
• Taking a team approach with physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, care coordinators and patients to achieve blood pressure control

“We are delighted to see Dr. Brull, a true trailblazer among our clients, selected for this elite honor,” said David Winn, MD, FAAFP, e-MDs CEO and Chairman of the Board. “Hypertension is a serious health issue in this country, yet it can be controlled with proper management. Dr. Brull clearly provides a template for practices to address this condition in a way that improves health outcomes and lowers costs. We are proud that our e-MDs solutions made a significant contribution to her award-winning efforts.”

About e-MDs
e-MDs is a leading developer of integrated electronic health records and practice management software for physician practices and enterprises. Founded and actively managed by physicians, the company is an industry leader for usable, connected software that enables physician productivity and a superior clinical experience. e-MDs software has received continual top rankings in physician and industry surveys including those conducted by the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Family Practice Management, KLAS, AmericanEHR Partners, MedScape, and Black Book.  e-MDs has a proven track record of positioning clients for success as demonstrated by Meaningful Use attainment in 2011-2012. According to data provided by CMS, e-MDs clients are attesting in the top proportion of all major vendors. For more information, please visit http://www.e-mds.com, http://facebook.e-mds.com, and https://twitter.com/emds.