Recent Articles & News:
- May 2012 Newsletter
- SCPC Visits Guangzhou Military Hospital in China
- Statistics Part 3: What are the Odds?
- Congratulations to the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals
- Dr. Bahr: The Power of An Idea
- Are you attending any of these conferences? Visit with us!
- SCPC Supports the Yale Heart Study!
- Congratulations to the Accredited Hospitals in the Top 100
Discover the SCPC:
- Learn how to become accredited
- Detect the early signs of a heart attack
- Purchase your Accreditation Toolkit
- Find an accredited center near you
Learn about our Mission:
Meet our Experts
Dr. Raymond Bahr is passionate about cardiac care and preventive education. As the founding father of SCPC, his passion to disseminate lifesaving information is a driving force at SCPC. Throughout his career, he has created multiple programs to help others understand the life saving measures that can save a life. In 1981 at St. Agnes Hospital, Dr. Bahr established the Chest Pain Emergency Department (CPED), the first such unit in the world. The initial purpose of this CPED was prompt and effective treatment of patients presenting with heart attack/sudden death. The CPED was coupled with an aggressive education program that taught the community the early warning signs of a heart attack. This education program extended to middle and high school students via health and science curricula.
Ready for Accreditation?
The Cycle IV Toolkit is here!
The Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) delivers Chest Pain Center Accreditation and Critical Access Hospital Chest Pain Accreditation and all of the information can be found in the latest Cycle IV toolkit.
The Cycle IV Toolkit
This Toolkit provides all of the information you need to work through the accreditation process and gives you:
- Accreditation Manual and User Guide
- Access to Shared Practices (on OAI)
- Access to Online Discussion Forum (on OAI)
- Access to Ask-the-Experts Sessions
- Free attendance for one workshop attendee from your facility
- Access to Accreditation Criteria Hotline
- Access to Accreditation-Related Webinars
- A credit of $500 will be applied toward the accreditation application fee
How can accreditation help you?
Accreditation serves as a tool to bring together diverse medical specialties, such as EMS, emergency medicine, and cardiology; clinicians and administrators; doctors and nurses; lawyers and doctors; architects and quality improvement professionals.
SCPC promotes the Chest Pain Center and Heart Failure Accreditation as an operational model. Accreditation provides facilities with a road map to identify process gaps and to develop a plan for improvement of patient care processes.
SCPC's Accreditation programs were developed using principles that are widely known in many segments of American business. Many larger organizations have entire departments or divisions devoted to process improvement. Likewise, all patient care is a process and can be improved.
It's about saving a life
The patient care delivery system most amenable to process improvement is the hospital. Hospitals function as businesses and, therefore, feel the same pressures and derive the same success from using process improvement tools. Because Chest Pain Center Accreditation and Heart Failure Accreditation are process improvement experiences, participating facilities are left with much more than a framed certificate to hang on the wall. The Accreditation Manual is designed to serve as a road map. There are two important points on a map: your location and your destination. The content of the Accreditation Manual is derived from peer-reviewed literature, professional society guidelines (mainly the American College of Cardiology), and the body of clinical acumen of participating clinicians. The destination (improved patient care processes) is known to the degree that medical science is correct.
SCPC - Because every heart matters
The Society of Chest Pain Centers promotes early symptom recognition. It is understood that heart attack symptoms may appear days or even weeks before an actual cardiac event. Through the Society’s “Early Heart Attack Care” (EHAC) initiative, both clinicians and patients alike are encouraged to recognize these early signs, in themselves and in others, and pursue treatment before an actual heart attack occurs. The EHAC initiative endeavors to provide pertinent education related to early symptom recognition and asks that everyone join in this initiative in order to save lives by committing to this cause.