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Southern Hills Medical Center - First Accredited Chest Pain Center in Nashville, Tennessee

NASHVILLE, TN– November 14, 2003. The Society of Chest Pain Centers and Providers has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to Southern Hills Medical Center, making it the first Chest Pain Center to receive accreditation in Nashville, Tennessee, and the 7th in the nation.

“The announcement of Southern Hill’s Chest Pain Center Accreditation is of great significance to the Society of Chest Pain Centers and Providers because this hospital was one of ten facilities that participated in the pilot program which aided the Society in the accreditation development process,” stated Robert Weisenburger Lipetz, Executive Director of the Society of Chest Pain Centers and Providers. “Southern Hill’s commitment to our pilot program and achievement of Chest Pain Center Accreditation further demonstrates the hospital’s focus on delivering the highest quality of care.”

“Being the first hospital in Nashville to receive Chest Pain Center Accreditation can be contributed to the team of healthcare professionals who were committed to learning the standards and guidelines established by the Society, said Lipetz. “The Society has also had the privilege to work with Cindy Waller, RN, Cardiac Administrator, who assisted the Society tremendously in the coordination of the ten hospital pilot program. For Southern Hills to be the first in Nashville is certainly a tribute to her hard work.”

Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in the United States, with 600,000 dying annually of heart disease. More than five million Americans visit hospitals each year with chest pain. The goal of the Society of Chest Pain Centers and Providers is to significantly reduce the mortality rate of these patients by teaching the public to recognize and react to the early symptoms of a possible heart attack, reduce the time that it takes to receive treatment, and increase the accuracy and effectiveness of treatment.

The Chest Pain Center’s protocol-driven and systematic approach to patient management allows physicians to reduce time to treatment during the critical early stages of a heart attack, when treatments are most effective, and to better monitor patients when it is not clear whether they are having a coronary event. Such observation helps ensure that a patient is neither sent home too early nor needlessly admitted.

With the rise of Chest Pain Centers came the need to establish standards designed to improve the consistency and quality of care provided to patients. The Society’s accreditation process insures centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures in acute cardiac medicine.

The Chest Pain Center at Southern Hills Medical Center has demonstrated its expertise and commitment to quality patient care by meeting or exceeding a wide set of stringent criteria and completing on-site evaluations by a review team from the Society of Chest Pain Centers and Providers. Key areas in which a Chest Pain Center must demonstrate expertise include:

• Integrating the emergency department with the local emergency medical system
• Assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients quickly
• Effectively treating patients with low risk for acute coronary syndrome and no assignable cause for their symptoms
• Having a functional design that promotes optimal patient care
• Insuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training
• Maintaining organizational structure and commitment
• Continually seeking to improve processes and procedures
• Supporting community outreach programs that educate the public to promptly seek medical care if they display symptoms of a possible heart attack

“Southern Hills has led the way in our health system in achieving this accreditation. Through years of chart review and data collection, they have elevated the quality of cardiac care that patients can receive in their own community closer to home. With this hard earned accreditation, Southern Hills offers something to the community that none of the other area hospitals can claim,” states Cindy Waller, Cardiac Administrator for TriStar Health System; national steering committee for American Heart Association.

“We are very proud to be the first accredited chest pain center in Nashville”, says Mary Sharp, Chief Nursing Officer at Southern Hills. “This achievement is due to the efforts of our medical and nursing staff and is an example of our commitment to patient care.”

About the Society of Chest Pain Centers
The Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) is an international professional society focused on improving care for patients with acute coronary syndromes and related maladies. The Society is committed to improving the quality of patient care through protocol-based medicine and the adoption of process improvement science to healthcare. SCPC is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. For more information, visit www.scpcp.org.

For more information on Southern Hills Medical Center or its Accredited Chest Pain Center, or its community outreach programs, call 615-781-1125.

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