Problem/Context

Community Pharmacies are the first point of call for most community members in Ghana. However, many a time, when patients are screened at the pharmacy there is no record of data for referral or analysis. Secondly, patients are mostly casually informed to visit their doctors and there is no follow up. The lack of insights into the extent of at-risk Hypertensive (HPTN) patients who report to the pharmacy poses a gap in the system in an attempt by the health system to clamp down on HPTN and other NCDs.

Thirdly, the inability to track and ensure that referred patients are taken care of increases the risk of morbidities and mortalities from the silent condition. According to the NCD Policy document for Ghana, 2022, the WHO had estimated that over 94,000 deaths were reported from Ghana in 2016. The policy document also cited that there was a higher prevalence of HPTN in urban Ghana with nearly half of persons identified with HPTN having target end-organ damage, suggesting that the condition had been long-standing without appropriate care and treatment. This confirms the need to increase screening and referrals.

The Solution: 

The intervention is targeting community pharmacies in urban and semi-urban areas in Ghana. It is envisaged that Movement Health will work with the Pharmacy Council of Ghana and the Ministry of Health, Ghana to implement the solution through the use of the NEPP. Community Pharmacy staff would be educated and provided with refresher training on HPTN screening protocols and how to document screening results, as well as when and how to refer patients. The NEPP platform would create the referral pathway from the pharmacy to the hospitals and clinics on the NEPP system.

The NEPP platform currently has the feature for capturing and recording blood pressure. Educational flyers will be made available at the pharmacies as a campaign jointly done by the Regulator and Movement Health to drive home the need to get screened at the pharmacy. The following interventions would have culminated with a data analytic dashboard which would analyze the trends of the data being captured and be available to Pharmacies, Prescribers, and Policy makers (including the Pharmacy Council, Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health)

Objectives:

• Access the acceptance and participation rates among individuals for hypertension screening at the community pharmacies.
• Collect and analyze data regarding the prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension within the community.
• Streamline strategies for early detection and referral pathways for individuals found to have elevated blood pressure readings.
• Assess the factors that may contribute to enhanced screening habits by the community pharmacies such as the use of incentives for screening.
• Activate a referral and monitoring system of linking at risk and confirmed hypertensive clients for further care at the community pharmacy level.

Impact: 

The Movement Health Foundation seeks to support health systems systems in developing best practice solutions and innovations which are future ready to support the demands of the future and save lives.This innovative solution will seek to ensure that data is used to assess trends in the disease of choice ie HPTN and make the necessary interventions to curtail any risk factors and predisposing factors. NCDs are fast becoming the most common diseases in the world with its associated cost to persons and the economy. Addressing any risk factors will go a long way to assist the heath system to plan better for its future.