This designation strengthens our ability to care for patients with complex hypertension and connects us to a national network of leading centers.
Charles W. Hopley, MD, MPH, FASNDartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics (Clinics) have been recognized as Comprehensive Hypertension Centers by the American Heart Association (AHA). This certification is for programs that demonstrate commitment to following proven, research-based treatment guidelines to care for people with complex or difficult-to-treat hypertension, or high blood pressure. DHMC and Clinics are the first to receive this level of certification in northern New England.
Certified Comprehensive Hypertension Centers are recognized as leaders in providing the most up-to-date, effective treatment strategies based on current evidence-based research in hypertension. Certified programs are primarily devoted to patients with hypertension and related disorders, are recognized as referral and treatment resources for resistant and secondary hypertension, and have facilities and personnel capable of assessing and evaluating complicated hypertension problems. To gain certification, programs undergo rigorous review by the AHA quality improvement specialists, who evaluate policies, procedures, and operations to ensure appropriate diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment protocols are in place for patients with hypertension.
“We’ve been working toward this distinction for several years,” said Charles W. Hopley, MD, MPH, FASN, medical director of DHMC’s Advanced Hypertension Clinic. “It was born from a shared vision between the hypertension/nephrology section, general internal medicine and the Heart and Vascular Center. This designation strengthens our ability to care for patients with complex hypertension and connects us to a national network of leading centers. It opens the door to shared protocols, data collaboration, and research that can directly benefit the population we serve.”
For more information on the American Heart Association certification programs, visit heart.org/certification.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.