MaineHealth remains focused on managing risk factors to prevent heart disease and on maximizing the quality of care for patients who have heart disease.
Why does MaineHealth focus on decreasing cardiovascular deaths?
- One in three deaths in the United States is due to cardiovascular disease.
- In the last decade, over 25,000 people in the MaineHealth Service area have died from cardiovascular disease.
- Although deaths from cardiovascular disease have been steadily decreasing over time in the MaineHealth service area, a recent uptick is cause for concern.
- One in every six health care dollars is spent on cardiovascular disease.
Taking Action
We support a variety of clinical, community and policy actions to help decrease cardiovascular deaths throughout the MaineHealth service area. Here are some of the ways that MaineHealth and our partners are responding:
Tracking Progress
Short-term cardiovascular measure and target:
- Among the 18- to 85-year old patients diagnosed with hypertension who receive care at a primary care practice in the MaineHealth Accountable Care Organization, greater than or equal to 72% will have blood pressure under control (<140/90mmHg) at their most recent office visit on or before September 30, 2018.
Long-term cardiovascular measure and target:
- In 2018-2020, the age-adjusted rate of deaths due to any cardiovascular condition will be less than or equal to155 per 100,000 people living in the 12-county MaineHealth service area.
Physician practices within the MaineHealth Accountable Care Organization focus on reducing cardiovascular disease and death by managing the high blood pressure of their patients.
Among patients diagnosed with hypertension, the percentage whose blood pressure was under control (<140/90 mmHg) increased from 66% in January 2014 to 72% by the end of June 2023.
The rates of all cardiovascular deaths in Maine and within the MaineHealth service area have consistently been below the national rate. For decades, age-adjusted rates for deaths due to cardiovascular disease have steadily decreased across the U.S. However, this long-running decline in mortality has recently plateaued.
The United States age-adjusted rate significantly decreased from 219 per 100,000 lives in 2015-2017 to 217 in 2018-2020, and the three year rate in the MaineHealth service area decreased even more between 2015-2017 and 2018-2020.
