NCT02674464

Reducing Inequities in Care of Hypertension, Lifestyle Improvement for Everyone (RICH LIFE Project)

Comparative Effectiveness of Health System vs. Multilevel Interventions to Reduce Hypertension Disparities

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 1,820 (actual)
• Sponsor: Johns Hopkins University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 21 Years – 100 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The RICH LIFE Project is a two-armed, cluster-randomized trial, comparing the effectiveness of an enhanced standard of care arm, "Standard of Care Plus" (SCP), to a multi-level intervention, "Collaborative Care/Stepped Care" (CC/SC), in improving blood pressure control, patient activation and reducing disparities in blood pressure control among 1,890 adult patients with uncontrolled hypertension and cardiovascular disease risk factors at thirty primary care practices in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Fifteen practices randomized to the SCP arm receive standardized blood pressure measurement training, and audit and feedback of blood pressure control rates at the practice provider level. Fifteen practices in the CC/SC arm receive all the SCP interventions plus the implementation of the collaborative care model with additional stepped-care components of community health worker referrals and subspecialist curbside consults and an on-going virtual workshop for organizational leaders in quality improvement and disparities reduction. The primary clinical outcomes are the percent of patients with blood pressure \<140/90 mm Hg and change from baseline in mean systolic blood pressure at 12 months. The primary patient reported outcome is change from baseline in self-reported patient activation at 12 months.

Detailed description

The investigators refined research aim is to determine if a clinic-based collaborative care team, including a community health worker (CHW) to deliver community-based contextualized care, reduces disparities in blood pressure control rates, lowers cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, and improves outcomes among patients with hypertension and other common comorbid conditions when compared to standard of care health system approaches to CVD risk management, including audit and feedback and staff and provider training. Collaborative care includes care coordination and care management; regular and proactive monitoring and treatment to target specific patient needs using validated clinical tools and rating scales; and regular systematic caseload reviews by the care team and consultation with experts for patients who do not show clinical improvement. A typical collaborative care team includes the primary care provider, nurse care manager or coordinator, and other members of the clinic staff involved in patient care. Intervention protocols are designed to address common comorbidities (diabetes, hyperlipidemia, depression and coronary heart disease), lifestyle factors (dietary intake, physical activity, and smoking) and medication adherence. The intensive intervention treats the "whole" patient, driven by individual patient goals and priorities, as opposed to the standard of care, which typically focuses on individual conditions. This proposed study responds directly to patient desires to feel more equipped to be involved in their care and manage multiple conditions that contribute to CVD. The investigators have worked successfully in the past with a broad range of stakeholders, including community members, patients, providers, and payors, and will continue to engage them through the research and dissemination process.

Conditions

• Uncontrolled Hypertension

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Provider Audit-Feedback, Stratified by Race and Ethnicity	Transparent and timely access to and review of clinical performance data are among the key elements of successful improvement activities. The RICH LIFE Project provides the health systems with the logic to build practice and provider level hypertension (HTN) dashboards, support in building the dashboard, and education in utilizing the dashboard. The practice dashboard provides a display of the percentage of patients achieving BP control, defined as \<140/90 mm Hg for the overall practice, while the provider dashboard provides a display of the percentage of patients achieving BP control for each provider's patient panel. Both the practice and provider Dashboards stratify hypertension performance data by race (White, non-Hispanic; Black, non-Hispanic; and All Hispanic) to help practice administration and clinicians evaluate differences between races and ethnicities in BP control rates. New reports are generated at least quarterly and will display data from the previous 3 months.
BEHAVIORAL	Blood Pressure Measurement Standardization	All adult medicine staff at participating study practices receive standardized, evidence-based, best practices BP measurement training. Aspects of the training include proper patient preparation and positioning, how use of an automated BP measurement device, and executing a "screen and confirm" protocol when measuring patients' blood pressures.
BEHAVIORAL	System Level Leadership Intervention	This System-Level Leadership intervention aims to create a learning network through an inter-organizational approach to promote health equity and reduce CVD disparities. Elements of the system-level leadership intervention, then, include: 1) an introductory session during the kick-off event (baseline); 2) a quarterly 1 hour "content call" with a presentation on leading for equity and discussion among system-level leaders, community organization leaders, and interested practice champions in the CC/Stepped care arm conducted via conference call/webinar; and 3) monthly "coaching calls" for the system and practice level leaders, CMs, and CHWs in the CC/stepped care arm to discuss the interventions, while they are actively engaged in the intervention phase.
BEHAVIORAL	Collaborative Care Team Intervention	The collaborative care intervention creates a collaborative care team that, at a minimum, consists of PCP, nurse, or social worker care manager, and community health worker. The collaborative care team develops the medical management plan in partnership with patients; 2) uses care coordination to maximize interaction of the patients' PCPs with other care providers addressing medication management, patient self-management, and psychosocial support on a regular, consistent basis; and 3) determines patient access to CHW support and subspecialty consultations.
BEHAVIORAL	Community Health Worker Referral	As a "stepped up" component of the Collaborative Care Team Intervention for patients needing support in overcoming a variety of social determinants
BEHAVIORAL	Specialist Care Consultation	As a "stepped up" component of the Collaborative Care Team Intervention for patients with complex medical conditions and/or patients that may not typically have access to specialist care

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-09-01
• Primary completion: 2022-02-28
• Completion: 2022-02-28
• First posted: 2016-02-04
• Last updated: 2022-07-01
• Results posted: 2022-07-01

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States