Concordance Between Common Hypertension Control Algorithms in Electronic Medical Record Data

Because quality improvement metrics and treatment guidelines are used to conduct research, evaluate care quality, and assess population health, they should, ideally, align. We used electronic medical record data to analyze variation between blood pressure control estimates calculated by using thresholds derived from National Quality Forum 0018 (NQF 0018) and Joint National Committee (JNC) treatment guidelines in a cohort of patients with hypertension. Percentage of patients with controlled blood pressure derived from each quality improvement or treatment guideline cutoff varied up to 16.1 percentage points. This variance demonstrates that discrepancies in blood pressure thresholds produce considerable variation in estimates; thus, treatment guidance and metrics should be selected carefully.