Identifying patients at risk of cardiovascular disease: a pharmacist-managed screening event for union workers and their dependents

Abstract

Objective: To describe a pharmacist-managed health screening as a tool to identify patients who were at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Design: Descriptive nonexperimental study.

Setting: A community pharmacy, a health benefit consulting company, and two local unions of plumbers and electricians in the Quad Cities area (Mid-Mississippi Valley) in fall 2006.

Patients: Union members and their dependents who received any one of the following pharmacist-managed screening services: systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), total cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

Intervention: Pharmacist-managed CVD risk screening program coordinated by a health benefit consulting company.

Main outcome measures: Risk levels of CVD according to SBP, DBP, total cholesterol, and HDL.

Results: 452 patients 20 years of age or older were screened. A total of 137 participants (45.2%) had an SBP of 140 mm Hg or more and 73 (24.1%) a DBP of 90 mm Hg or more. Among patients who checked their total cholesterol or HDL, 81 (24.0%) had high total cholesterol and 55 (16.4%) low HDL.

Conclusion: A pharmacist-managed health screening program was a tool to identify patients at risk of CVD. At-risk individuals could be potential participants in a cardiovascular risk management service.