The goal is to unify criteria and establish the basis for detection and monitoring of hypertensive patients in community pharmacy, defining the warning signs and referral to medical procedures.

Anne Miller, vice president and head of HTA Group SEFAC, explained that "community pharmacists require such documents to facilitate their clinical work by consensus with the medical community."

Luis Miguel Ruilope, chief of the Hypertension Unit at the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre in Madrid and former President of SEH-LELHA, says that "pharmacies are an extension of the clinic, so that if they performed early detection of hypertension, we are saving time and money to the health system. "

Alejandro de la Sierra, Chief of Internal Medicine, Mutua Terrassa Hospital and coordinator of guidance from SEH-LELHA, said that "the optimal shared management of the patient with hypertension requires coordination between health professionals, so that the establishment of agreed performance criteria is the best way to achieve the goal. "

For his part, Daniel Saba, a member of the ETS and GIAF SEFAC-UGR and one of the coordinators of the guide, pointed out that "with tools like this is demonstrated that it is perfectly possible understanding between doctors and pharmacists to establish agreed performance criteria after the health of these patients. "

The guide focuses on explaining how to conduct proper screening plan for the detection of patients from the pharmacy without a known diagnosis of hypertension.

In cases of patients previously diagnosed with drug treatment, the monitoring plan that the document proposes that the pharmacist is based on promoting adherence to treatment and evaluation of the effectiveness of therapy.

The guide includes a handy graphic algorithm with steps to follow in each situation.