What is Blood Pressure (BP)@Home?
BP@Home monitoring enables patients to remotely report their blood pressure readings to primary
care instead of having to attend regular appointments to have their blood pressure checked.
In line with the national SOP, practices/PCNs are encouraged to identify patients most at risk and
ask them to monitor their blood pressure at home either using their own monitors or by providing a
BP monitor to the patient. Patients record and return their measurements using an online platform,
paper record or downloadable MS Excel template.
How to implement BP@Home
• EMIS or SystmOne hypertension searches are available to help identify people in the priority
groups at: Search and stratication tool downloads – UCLPartners
• The Sussex BP@Home clinical pathway (Appendix 1) and an FAQ document are available on
the NHS Sussex intranet BP@Home page.
• The clinical pathway includes SNOMED codes to record when a patient is using home-based
blood pressure monitoring, when they are loaned a BP monitor and average results.
• Use of the correct consistent coding will enable us to report on HBPM activity, as required by
the national BP@Home programme. You may wish to use the BP@Home Ardens template
(Appendix 2), which includes the relevant codes, or add these separately.
Digital tools to support practices and patients
There are various tools and digital platforms available to help practices to oer technology-enabled
care when delivering home blood pressure monitoring. The choice of platform should be based on:
• Patient’s access to and condence in using online digital tools
• Risk of high readings / urgency of response – some platforms provide RAG rated alerts to help
prioritise the highest risk patients.
• Frequency and period of monitoring required – some platforms facilitate repeat measurements
by automatically contacting the patient for readings after an agreed period.
• The below diagram provides a suggested model for how practices might wish to use AccuRX
and Inhealthcare to support patients with BP@Home, based on the priority groups outlined in
the Sussex BP@Home pathway.
Priority Groups 1 – 2b:
Recommend management via
Inheathcare or similar remote
monitoring platform, providing
RAG rated readings and
longer-term repeat monitoring.
Priority Groups
2c – 4: Recommend
management via AccuRX
Floreys to submit 4- or
7-days average blood
pressure
Please note: The suggested digital platforms require patient access to a
smartphone/device and access to the internet. Where an individual is unable to
use any of the digital tools, practices should support them to use the paper diary instead.
What is the Inhealthcare platform for patients and practices?
• Inhealthcare sends patients reminders by email, SMS
or app and allows them to submit their blood pressure
readings via an online application.
• The platform provides average readings to the practice,
together with RAG-rated alerts for readings which fall
outside of agreed parameters.
• It supports longer-term monitoring by providing trend
charts of readings and automatically sending requests
for follow-up readings to the patient after an agreed
period.
Licences for Inhealthcare are available to Sussex practices
free of charge and can be linked to EMIS or SystmOne. If
you would like more information on using Inhealthcare or
to arrange a demo, email: [email protected]
What are AccuRX Floreys for BP@Home?
• Accurx Blood Pressure Floreys send an online questionnaire to patients
to collect their blood pressure readings via SMS.
• The patient lls the questionnaire through a browser so can use their
phone, tablet, laptop, desktop to complete it.
• Responses are returned to the practice and can be saved directly into
the clinical record as a coded entry
AccuRX Floreys are available to all practices. For advice on how to use the
AccuRX system, contact the Digital Facilitation team at
Appendix 2: EMIS and SystmOne templates
EMIS
To locate the Ardens Hypertension Template, access the relevant patient record. Open a new
consultation and select the Run Template option (if not in consultations, click on the Add button on
the EMIS ribbon, followed by Data Using Template option).
This will open the Template Picker screen. If you have accessed any templates before, these will
display to the left of the screen. Search for the template by typing “hypertension” in the search box.
This will return the Hypertension (Ardens) template (alternatively select the Ardens > Chronic
disease templates folder to the right of the screen).
Equipment Loan Resources
Ardens has also provided a template to easily manage the loan and return of the equipment within
the practice.
Search for the Ardens ‘Equipment Loan’ template via the Run Template option (if not in
consultations, click on the Add button on the EMIS ribbon, followed by Data Using Template
option). Once located, double click on the template to launch.
Selecting the Home BP Monitor page on the left will open the page to enable you to record that
you have loaned the machine, the patient has returned the machine, they have been put on a
waiting list, or a section to record results:
SystmOne
The BP monitoring template can be found within the hypertension template in Auto-Consultations
or by searching for ‘hypertension’.
Note: If you regularly use this template, it may be useful to add this to your F12 Favourites for
quick access.
