Context
For many Ghanaians, community pharmacies are their main source of healthcare access; however, they don't have adequate systems in place for storing data for analysis or referral during patient screenings. It is common practice to recommend to patients to see their doctors without any follow-up protocols in place. The inability to identify people who are at-risk for hypertension impedes attempts to treat HPTN as well as other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In addition, the chance of complications and untreated condition-related mortality rises when referred patients are not followed up with. The WHO recorded over 94,000 deaths in Ghana in 2016, and the country's NCD Policy document (2022) states that over 94,000 of those deaths occurred in urban areas, where patients had severe target end-organ damage and a greater frequency of HPTN. These findings underscore the urgent need for improved screening and referrals.

The Solution
Ghana's urban and semi-urban community pharmacies are the focus of the program, and Movement Health and the Pharmacy Council of Ghana are collaborating to use the NEPP to deliver the solution. The project entails enabling patient referrals, recording screening findings, and giving pharmacy staff refresher training on hypertension (HPTN) screening techniques. The NEPP platform's integration creates a seamless referral process that links pharmacies and clinics. Joint initiatives by Movement Health and Regulatory ensure that pharmacies stock patient screening informational flyers. To further assist pharmacists and legislators, a data analytics dashboard has been created to examine patterns in the data that has been collected.

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.