These health centers are recognized for their efforts to improve community blood pressure with the goal of ultimately reducing heart attack and stroke rates
Twenty-nine clinics located in the Greater Washington Region have been recognized for their unwavering commitment to achieving better blood pressure control in their communities, with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of Americans who have heart attacks and strokes.
These are the clinics that have been awarded and their respective levels of achievement:
Gold+
- African American Health Program (Rockville, Md.)
- Elaine Ellis Center of Health (Washington, D.C.)
- Holy Cross Health Center (site locations: Asbury Methodist Village, Aspen Hill, Elizabeth Square, Gaithersburg, Kensington, Progressive Medical Care, Silver Spring – various locations, Md.)
- Neighborhood Health (site locations: Arlington, Casey, Mark Center, Merrifield, Richmond Highway, South County – various cities, Va.)
Gold
- Care for Your Health, Inc. (Silver Spring, Md.)
- CCI Health & Wellness Services (various locations, Md.)
- Family and Medical Counseling Service (Washington, D.C.)
- Mobile Medical Care (Bethesda, Md.)
Silver+
- American Diversity Group (Silver Spring, Md.)
- Chinese Culture and Community Service Center (Gaithersburg, Md.)
- Muslim Community Center Medical Clinic and Dental Clinic (Silver Spring, Md.)
- Proyecto Salud (various locations, Md.)
- Neighborhood Health (site locations: 2 East, Annandale, Martha Custis – various cities, Va.)
Silver
- Mansfield Kaseman Clinic (Rockville, Md.)
- Mary’s Center (Silver Spring, Md.)
- Whitman-Walker Health (Washington, D.C.)
Nearly half of U.S. adults live with hypertension, or high blood pressure, a leading preventable risk factor for heart disease, stroke and premature death, according to the 2025 American Heart Association Statistical Update. Yet just a quarter of them have their blood pressure under control, making both diagnosis and effective management critical.
“Hypertension is the number one preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including heart attack, stroke and heart failure, yet it often goes unnoticed” said Ameya Kulkarni, M.D., FSCAI, American Heart Association, Greater Washington Region board president and associate medical director at Kaiser Permanente. “Patient education is critical and through programs like Target: BP, we’re seeing how care providers can help improve outcomes and address this key driver of heart disease.”
The American Heart Association, a relentless force changing the future of health for everyone everywhere, and American Medical Association (AMA) are recognizing 2,307 health care organizations for tackling this public health challenge through the Target: BP™ initiative around the country.
Target: BP™ is a national initiative launched in 2015 by the American Heart Association and AMA in response to the high prevalence of uncontrolled blood pressure. Together, the associations:
- leverage American Heart Association science and the evidence-based AMA MAP™ framework to help care teams organize their approach to providing evidence-based care;
- assist and support health care organizations to improve and sustain BP control with professional education, practice tools and resources, including support through the associations’ quality improvement programs; and
- recognize organizations annually with achievement awards celebrating commitment to improvement, adoption of evidence-based BP care and achieving BP control rates of 70% or greater among their patients.
This year’s participating organizations span 49 states and U.S. territories and serve more than 38 million patients, including nearly 10.6 million people with hypertension. In the Greater Washington Region alone, participating clinics serve more than 98,000 people. More than 40% of participating organizations are nonprofit health centers that receive federal funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration to reach medically underserved populations.
Since the American Heart Association and AMA launched Target: BP™, more than 4,900 health care organizations have joined the nationwide movement to make heart health a priority. For the past five years, approximately 80% of participating organizations have continued their engagement year after year — reflecting a continuous commitment to improving BP and sharing a common goal to improve health outcomes associated with heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the U.S.
The American Heart Association recently also released new blood pressure guidelines emphasizing prevention, early treatment and lifestyle changes.
Learn more at TargetBP.org.