Going to a doctor in America, for whatever reason, the first thing that happens is that a nurse comes and takes your blood pressure. I wonder why? Never happened to me in Europe.
In the UK (not an insurance-based system), many GPs ("family doctors") will aim to take a BP reading if there is time. This is partly because there is a system called the Quality Outcome Framework that incentivises practices to do so, but the route of it is that those incentives are in place because high blood pressure is extremely common, under-diagnosed, and has huge health consequences if left untreated, which in turn is extremely expensive for a national health service. A BP check is quick, simple, and cheap, and can help to identify problems early on when simpler interventions can stave off bad outcomes.
When I asked, they said the insurance company forces them to collect two metrics or the insurance will reject the claim. That's why a nurse always gets your weight, temperature, and/or blood pressure regardless of the reason you're seeing a doctor.
Two reasons. First, it's a clinical quality measure that needs to be collected by law. The government mandates that you collect certain data about X% of patients you are in contact with and transmit that data to relevant parties or else you will be penalized financially by Medicare.
Also, BP, weight, and temperature are important diagnostic indicators
Someone didn't read the parent comment. The article talks about re-taking of history and vitals during care transitions, after the patient has been admitted. The parent comment asked about taking those measures during admission / triage and checkups when the healthcare team doesn't have any data yet. Those are two different things.
In the UK, they do. In my GP's surgery there's even an automated machine in the lobby that will print out your BP and a sign advising to take your BP if you haven't "recently" and bring the printed slip with you to show the doctor or nurse.
