AHN West Penn Hospital Receives Comprehensive Hypertension Center Certification from American Heart Association

PITTSBURGH, PA  – Allegheny Health Network Comprehensive Hypertension Center at West Penn Hospital has been awarded the American Heart Association’s Comprehensive Hypertension Center Certification, one of just three centers in Pennsylvania to receive this designation.

The certification recognizes the program’s commitment to following proven, research-based treatment guidelines to care for people with complex or difficult-to-treat hypertension (high blood pressure.)

“Almost half of American adults have high blood pressure, and many of those people are unaware they have it. Uncontrolled hypertension puts people at risk of for serious complications, including heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease,” said Raghu Tadikamalla, MD, FACC, a Certified Hypertension Specialist and Director of Cardiovascular Imaging at West Penn Hospital. “We are proud to offer our patients up-to-date, evidence-based, effective treatment strategies that can help control even treatment-resistant cases of hypertension.”

Certified programs must be primarily devoted to patients with hypertension and related disorders, be recognized as referral and treatment centers for resistant and secondary hypertension and have facilities and personnel capable of assessing and evaluating complicated hypertension problems.

The Comprehensive Hypertension Center underwent several reviews by American Heart Association quality improvement specialists who evaluated the center’s policies, procedures and operations to ensure appropriate diagnosis, evaluation and treatment protocols were in place and executed for hypertension patients.  

 “Hypertension is the most common risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and aggressive management is vitally important to reduce cardiovascular risk for death and disability”, said Indu Poornima, MD, System Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at AHN. “This certification is an important recognition of our commitment to improving care of our hypertensive patients to reduce their risk for heart disease and stroke”.

Through this certification program, the American Heart Association aims to improve the outcomes of people with complex or difficult-to-treat hypertension by collaborating with medical practices to implement evidence-based treatment guidelines.  Practices and programs are evaluated against a professional set of criteria based on demonstrated adherence to key standards and rigorous review process.