OhioHealth Physician Group Primary Care Earns American Heart Association Awards

Photo courtesy: American Heart Association 

OhioHealth Physician Group (OPG) Primary Care has been recognized by the American Heart Association (AHA) with three awards for several consecutive years: the Target: BP™ Gold Award, the Target: Type 2 Diabetes™ Award, and the Check. Change. Control. Cholesterol™ Award.

“These recognitions from the American Heart Association reflect the consistent, team-based approach our physicians and care teams take to improve patient outcomes,” said Kathleen Provanzana, MD, OhioHealth Physician Group Medical Director for Privileging and Credentialing and Associate Medical Director for Quality and Peer Review. “By focusing on evidence-based care and proactive disease management, we are helping our patients better control chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol which will result in improving their health.”

According to the AHA, the Target: BP™ Award is given “In recognition of achieving blood pressure control among 70% or more of your adult patient population.”

The American Heart Association’s Target: Type 2 Diabetes™ program “recognizes this organization for improving quality of care for patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors by adapting clinical change and using evidence-based strategies and tools.”

The American Heart Association’s Check. Change. Control. Cholesterol™ program “recognizes this organization for improving quality of care through awareness, detection, and management of high cholesterol by educating and empowering patients with evidence-based strategies and tools.”

“These awards show our commitment to helping patients manage conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes so they can stay healthier and reduce their risk of stroke,” OhioHealth Advisor of Quality and Patient Safety, Meredith Buffum, said.

Buffum began working closely with the AHA following the COVID-19 pandemic and now serves as the lead for OhioHealth’s collaborative efforts with the organization, with a particular focus on advancing health equity for patients.

The OPG Primary Care team submits data annually to the American Heart Association. That data is reviewed by the AHA and used to recognize top-performing organizations that meet established standards. 

For the Target: BP™ Gold Award, one example of the work recognized includes OhioHealth Graduate Medical Education (GME) family practice’s involvement in a three-year Franklin County collaboration grant commitment called, “Equity-First Hypertension Initiative.” This initiative included care sites and ambulatory offices in Buffalo and Houston.

“OhioHealth Graduate Medical Education family and internal medicine residency practices in Franklin County received funds to help purchase blood pressure cuffs and we instituted that loan in our program where patients would try to work with their blood pressure and get them down to goal,” Buffum said.

OhioHealth Clinical Outcomes Manager for Quality and Patient Safety, Lisa Gloeckner, RN, serves as the metric lead for hypertension at OhioHealth Physician Group. In 2025, she traveled to New Orleans for the AHA Scientific Sessions to present on the team’s work related to blood pressure control.

“The poster I presented at the AHA 2025 Scientific Sessions in New Orleans was about work that was being done in Athens,” Gloeckner said. “We were handing out blood pressure cuffs to patients who were not able to afford a cuff, and part of that, they had to agree to come back in and see the doctor in four to six weeks to see where their blood pressure was.”

Gloeckner shared that OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital provided the blood pressure cuffs to the OhioHealth Quality and Patient Safety team for distribution to patients.

The work highlighted at the conference also showcased the team’s efforts to educate patients on lifestyle changes, how to properly take blood pressure readings at home, accurate measurement techniques, scheduling in-person appointments or accessing electronic visits, and medication education to ensure patients are on the right treatment path. Gloeckner noted the team has seen significant improvements in patient outcomes as a result of these efforts.

The team hopes to expand this initiative to additional communities surrounding OhioHealth hospitals.

Gloeckner emphasized the importance of patient education when it comes to hypertension.

“With controlling hypertension, it’s a silent killer,” Gloeckner said. “It’s the thing that has gone on chronically in the background for years and you don’t really realize it.”

She added that untreated hypertension can increase a person’s risk for kidney disease, dementia-related conditions, and other serious health concerns.

To learn more about hypertension or to seek care, click here.