{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.023346303501945526, 'fraction_numerical': 0.021122846025569762, 'mean_word_length': 5.382978723404255, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 1, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The doctor needs to see you now: accelerating the care of patients with uncontrolled hypertension

Despite compelling evidence that hypertension treatment prevents adverse cardiovascular and renal outcomes [1] and is cost effective [2], barely half of hypertensive adults in the USA and even fewer in Europe and Canada have their blood pressure under control (<140/90 mmHg) [3,4]. An appropriate response to this should be more aggressive treatment of patients with uncontrolled hypertension. However, studies show that the opposite is happening and patients with elevated blood pressure are being seen much less frequently than currently recommended by the guidelines. A typical patient with uncontrolled hypertension may be seen every 2–3 months [5,6] even though both the Joint National Committee (JNC) 7 and the European Society of Hypertension guidelines recommend monthly or more frequent visits [7,8]. Several studies provide support for more frequent encounters between hypertensive patients and their healthcare providers. A study of 429 patients cared for at two urban family practices showed a significant correlation between the time to the next clinic visit and subsequent change in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure [9]. We recently conducted a study of 5042 hypertensive patients with diabetes at primary care practices affiliated with two academic medical centers. Our results demonstrated that patients who saw their physicians every month or less normalized their blood pressure within 1.5 months compared with 12.2 months for patients seen less frequently [10]. Shorter encounter intervals were associated with even greater benefit: patients seen every 2 weeks or less normalized their blood pressure within 0.7 months versus 1.9 months for patients seen every 2–4 weeks.