Managing Hypertension: An Audit of Local Practice in A Tertiary Care Hospital

Background Hypertension is a prevalent non-communicable disease in the Indian subcontinent and its inadequate management results in increased rates of morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to identify the lack of management and assess the overall approach of the treating physicians per the American Heart Association AHA guidelines following an initial audit.Methodology A re-audit was conducted to establish if the action plan proposed in the initial audit had improved the practice.Results Of the 247 hypertensive patients 68.5 were well controlled BPlt14090. Out of the total patients 137 patients needed combined treatment either at the beginning or during the follow-up. There was an improvement noted across most parameters in the audit tool compared to the initial audit especially in the classification of hypertensive patients uarr99 device on lifestyle modifications uarr64 and follow-up with monitoring of side effects uarr48.Conclusion An improvement was noted across all parameters initially assessed in the audit. This indicates the need for checklists employed in active management. Scope for improvement was deemed necessary in differentiating secondary from primary hypertension.