Love Your Heart This Valentine's Day
You and your practice can be part of a countywide effort to increase San Diegans' awareness of their blood pressure (BP) values and the role BP plays in heart disease and stroke. San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency’s LiveWell San Diego iniitiative is sponsoring a countywide blood pressure screening day — called Love Your Heart — to be held on Valentine's Day, Friday, February 14. This is the third year the program has taken place, and the goal is to exceed 20,000 BP screens in one business day. It is the first year physicians will be directly involved in the program.
The SDCMS Foundation will be coordinating the efforts of the private practice physicians in Love Your Heart Day; little extra effort is needed by your practice. Please record blood pressures taken on all your patients on a simple tally sheet (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE TALLY SHEET); no other identifiers are needed. You might also consider allowing walk-in blood pressure checks in your practice on Friday, February 14. Contact Francesca Mueller at Francesca.Mueller@SDCMS.org if you will be participating. You will need to fax your tally sheet back to the SDCMS Foundation at (858) 560-0179 by the end of business on February 14.
In addition to physician offices, clinics, and hospitals, the day will include community-based screening outreach at libraries, churches, community centers, and other non-medical locations in order to include populations who have difficulty accessing medical care.
Physician involvement in a countywide, cross-sector approach toward preventing disease is crucial, and San Diego is in a unique position to demonstrate how an integrated approach toward healthy living can impact healthcare costs, reduce suffering, and save lives. Love Your Heart Valentine's Day is a good start to physician involvement in the County’s LiveWell San Diego program. For more information, contact Francesca Mueller at (858) 565-58161.
Click Here for a Letter (Plus Tally Sheet) From the SDCMS Foundation to Physicians That You Can Send to Your Colleagues