Boosting Heart Health: Increasing use of the CVD risk Calculator

What is the aim of this QI activity?

The aim of this QI activity is to: 

• improve the use of the CVD Risk Calculator during routine health checks for eligible patients:

  • aged 45-79

  • 30+ for First Nations peoples

  • 35+ for people with diabetes

• identify 10 patients to conduct CVD risk calculation. By completing this activity, you will build your skills in using the CVD Risk calculator, enabling you to confidently assess and interpret cardiovascular risk scores.

What will I need to do?

• Identify 10 patients who do not have their CVD risk recorded.

• If your practice uses Best Practice as its clinical software, familiarise yourself with the Best Practice guide for the integrated Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment Calculator.

• If your practice has any other clinical software, familiarise yourself with the CVD Risk Calculator available on the website.

Optional:

• Revisit CVD and its risk factors.

• Review the overview of process for CVD risk assessment and management.

• Review the Overview | CVD Risk Guideline.

How will I complete this activity?

1. Identify the people in your team to complete the CVD risk calculation.

2. Make sure you can access the Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors report in Primary Sense (instructions below) – use this to identify your patients.

3. Update 10 patients' CVD risk details in your practice's clinical software.

Where do I document my results?

You can choose to track your results in a variety of ways including:  

• quality improvement register

• manually recording the number of CVD risk calculations you complete.

You may also choose to create your own way to track your results to best suit your practice.   

Who can I contact for support?

For support with this activity please contact the General Practice Quality Improvement team on 38647540 or email [email protected].

1 - Form a quality improvement team.

• all staff can be involved and contribute to this activity

• identify who in your practice will complete this activity. This might include assigning roles and responsibilities

• you might like to discuss further in your team meeting to gain interest from the broader team

2 - Use the Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors report in Primary Sense (PS) to identify 10 patients who have a high or moderate risk of CVD.

• anyone in the team can help creating a list of 10 patients with high or moderate CVD risk

• to do this, use the following instructions to access the Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors report in Primary Sense

• you may want to look at how many patients are identified in each section (high and moderate risk) and prioritise which patients you contact first

3 - Contact patients with high/moderate CVD risk to arrange appointment or use the existing appt in the PS report.

• you can use the patients with an ‘existing appointment’ feature in the PS report and add a note to the patients file for the healthcare provider to discuss cardiovascular health and CVD risk with them when they attend the practice for their appointment. If time allows, you may choose to complete the CVD risk assessment in the appointment or book them in for a follow up appointment 

• patients without an existing appointment can be invited to attend the practice for CVD risk assessment through your recall and reminder process (i.e. Healthengine or HotDoc)

4 - Calculate the CVD risk using the CVD risk calculator

• if using, Best Practice, the CVD risk calculator is available in the patient’s record under clinical > Cardiovascular risk

• once the risk calculation is complete, a box will appear where you have the option to add the risk percentage of a cardiovascular event. This will be recorded as an observation in the patient’s file 

• for practices with other clinical software, the CVD risk calculator is available on the Heart Foundation website

5 - Offer & discuss results with patients based on CVD Risk guideline.

The CVD risk calculator offers a printable summary of the patients CVD risk percentage including statistics and probability of a cardiovascular event. The summary also includes QR codes for useful resources and links to peak bodies to support lifestyle modifications. You can print the summary for the patient to take with them and action. This can also support you to build a heart health plan.

Track your improvement.

• using a basic tally sheet or by using the Quality improvement Register

How did you go?

• As a team, consider discussing these reflective questions:

  • do you feel confident to use the CVD risk calculator?

  • did you experience any barriers or challenges?

  • if yes, how did you overcome them?

  • would you adopt the CVD risk calculator into your routine health assessments and chronic disease plans?

  • if yes, what do you plan to do to action this?

  • if no, why not?

• Celebrate your achievements as a team!

Use this blank template to get started with Quality Improvement Activities:

• Brisbane South Primary Health Network: QI Tools and resources | Brisbane South PHN / new template

• refer to a completed example to assist with documentation here