Delivering culturally competent cardiovascular care

Are you prepared to join AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia in battling the dietary, exercise, health behavior, and cultural factors that lead to increased incidence of cardiovascular disease among our enrollees? Addressing these concerns starts with dedicated providers like you.

We believe in placing a greater emphasis on encouraging healthy behaviors to prevent cardiovascular disease. And we believe that you should be equipped with tools to help your patients. The materials below are intended to help you effectively assess and treat enrollees with cardiovascular disease, with a special emphasis on addressing racial and ethnic health disparities that you may see among our enrollees.

How you can help

• Follow the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guidelines (PDF). Let these summaries of evidence-based recommendations be your guide as you render services to our enrollees who are at-risk for or who already suffer from heart disease.
• Be sensitive to low health literacy. Patients with low health literacy are more likely to have trouble understanding and adhering to a treatment plan. When working with our enrollees, try to avoid complex medical terminology, avoid overloading them with too much information, and ask them to explain your directions back to you to ensure comprehension.
• Think cultural health. Understand and address varying risk factors based on a enrollee's race or ethnic background.