The success that Operation Heart has achieved at the Washington State University chapter is primarily due to two things: collaboration and creativity. Operation Heart has always had a strong foundation to build upon, having a long history of blood pressure clinics in the Pullman community. This past year however the Operation Heart Chairs focused on increasing the quality and caliber of outreach events by finding creative ways to truly engage the patients at these events.  They also tried to facilitate larger scale events more akin to a health fair, than a simple clinic. Collaboration was the key to create such exciting events, keeping each of the patient care projects mutually accountable for their respective responsibilities.

One of the biggest successes this year was the creation of a Healthy Cougar Carnival that engaged all members of the community into our health initiative. Each booth had a health related screening or game associated with a specific educational topic. Through this event, Operation Heart screened over 300 patients for high blood pressure and cholesterol. Utilizing cholesterol testing has been pivotal for Operation Heart as it opens up such a vast array of counseling points. By adding such screenings, the depth of patient interactions has increased enormously. In addition to this highly involved event, Operation Heart worked tirelessly to almost double the number of outreach events from the previous year.
           

Operation Heart has used creativity to utilize social media, involve games and prizes into their outreach events, and most importantly create interactions with members of the community that are memorable and meaningful. We can undoubtedly say that Operation Heart has created an authentic relationship with the community that has left a big impact in Pullman.

For more information about Operation Heart, head to: https://www.pharmacist.com/apha-asp-operation-heart