Wednesday, January 15, 2025
1/15/2025
The Mississippi State Department of Health, Office of Preventive Health – Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program (HDSPP) requests $1,177,592 to build capacity and implement evidence-based or informed interventions to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death in Mississippi (MS). Emphasis will be placed on addressing high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and the social drivers of health (SDOH) in the clinical setting. Mississippi, a predominantly rural state with the highest percentage of African Americans (37.5%) in the nation, lag other states in health outcomes, in part due to the SDOH. Increased health risks and racial disparities in health outcomes are exacerbated by poor access to medical treatment, physician shortages, and other barriers such as food insecurity and transportation. All 82 MS counties are medically underserved due to physician and health care facility shortages (HRSA, 2021). According to the 2021 BRFSS, 40.2% of the respondents had been told by a medical provider that they had high blood pressure, and 33.0% of the respondents had been told they had high blood cholesterol. To improve CVD outcomes, the HDSPP proposes to expand the existing multidisciplinary quality improvement leadership team, the Mississippi Alliance for Cardiovascular Disease (MACH). Currently, MACH is comprised of stakeholders from medical associations, public health practitioners, and health information technologists, but the HDSPP will recruit representation from third-party payers, academic institutions, and community organizations to address the SDOH. MACH will assist the HDSPP by providing subject matter expertise, advocating for policy changes for improved blood pressure control, and incorporating the SDOH content in the HDSPP’s Chronic Disease Quality Improvement Initiative (CDQII). Furthermore, MACH will assist the HDSPP with recruiting healthcare systems to participate in the CDQII Learning Collaborative. Awarded healthcare systems, comprised of primary care practices, rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers through the Request for Proposal process will establish multidisciplinary teams, to include a Community Health Worker; implement the model for improvement, Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles; collect, track and report standardized clinical and social services data; and link patients to community resources, services and lifestyle change programs. To address social service barriers, the CDQII Coordinator and Health Equity Lead will facilitate learning sessions and promote workflow pivot processes to redirect patient care based upon immediate SDOH needs. CHWs will be encouraged to follow-up with patients and document the outcomes bi-directionally. The HDSPP will provide ongoing Electronic Health Records (EHR) training and support throughout the Learning Collaborative. Through this newly expanded statewide infrastructure, the HDSPP will have the required capacity, support, and technical expertise to successfully achieve the strategies and activities. Evaluators will also be engaged throughout the planning and implementation of all phases. A mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) approach of a process and outcome evaluation will be utilized. It is expected that implementation of the program will, in the long-term, yield positive health outcomes for Mississippians such as improved prevention and management of hypertension and high blood cholesterol.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).