Quality Standards for Diabetes Care Toolkit

One Heart Many Lives

The PHARMAC One Heart Many Lives (OHML) initiative (www.oneheartmanylives.co.nz/) started as a social marketing programme aimed at those at high risk of cardiovascular disease, such as Māori and Pacific men over 35 years. The key messages are:

get your heart checked

get more active

eat better

stop smoking.
It includes information about what is described as a ‘six pack’ consisting of blood pressure, nutrition, diabetes, cholesterol, being active and smoking.
In 2009, OHML was introduced in Hawkes Bay as a general practice initiative (Best Practice Advocacy Centre 2009) involving:

clinical facilitator visits to all primary health organisations (PHOs) and practices

providing the ability to do point-of-care testing

developing practice and patient information including a handbook and patient information cards.

The One Heart Many Lives handbook presented ideas on how practices could:

encourage Māori and Pacific men to attend general practice

assess their risk when they do present

identify manageable interventions

encourage them to return

gradually increase the amount of care they receive.

What happened in practice:

Obtained funding for free CVD/health checks. The PHO assisted in making the One Heart Many Lives project reach its full potential by using Services to Increase Access funding to make the CVD/Health assessment free to the patient. The PHO also funded follow-up consultations.

Developed practice specific interventions to encourage the target population to attend a free CVD/health check. One practice phoned patients in the target group to offer free assessment. Another practice sent out invitations to those in the target group. Both reported an overwhelming response and had very few patients decline the free check.

CVD assessments were conducted by practice nurses using point-of-care testing, to obtain non-fasting total cholesterol, HDL and glucose. These results were used to calculate an initial estimate of CVD risk. Patients preferred to have the result at the time of consultation and outcomes could be discussed immediately or referred to the GP.

Outcomes were:

increased number of cardiovascular risk assessments

increased patient involvement and satisfaction with health care

increased health professional satisfaction (Best Practice Advocacy Centre 2009).

Additional information is available on the HIIRC website: www.hiirc.org.nz/page/17701/one-heart-many-lives/?contentType=111&tab=4189§ion=10536.