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From California to Florida, Accredited Chest Pain Centers Offer New Level of Care
COLUMBUS, OH. November 21, 2003 - The Society of Chest Pain Centers has now granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to hospitals in eight states from California to Florida.
“We now have a total of twelve Accredited Chest Pain Centers with twenty more expected by the end of the year,” says Robert Weisenburger Lipetz, executive director of the Columbus, OH-based Society of Chest Pain Centers and Providers. “We also have requests for materials about accreditation from hospitals in forty states.”
The Society of Chest Pain Centers was established in l998 when it became evident that there needed to be an organization that focused on and encouraged membership of cardiologists and emergency physicians who were partnering in early acute coronary syndrome intervention within the emergency department. The Society, which is committed to improving the consistency and quality of cardiac care through the Chest Pain ER concept, inaugurated the accreditation process through which they evaluate Chest Pain Centers to ensure that these centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures in acute cardiac medicine.
“Until now, there has been no true standardization and in some instances, the Chest Pain Center is unfortunately a sign at the door used as an advertising tool,” says Ahmed El Ghamry Sabe, M.D., Executive Director, Cardiovascular Center. “The fact that the Society has provided standardization, will benefit the majority who seriously want to positively impact management of heart attack patients with their Chest Pain Center to save lives, improve patient outcomes, and establish an overall community strategy for cardiac care.”
The accreditation process goes beyond a pass or fail review. It teaches hospitals how to operate a Chest Pain Center successfully through the understanding of eight key areas including:
- 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
“At Southern Hills, we understand the importance of ‘Time is Tissue.’ As a community hospital, we are especially proud to have the capabilities of treating patients with all types of cardiovascular conditions such as heart attacks and strokes,” says Greta Woodall, Director of Emergency Services at Southern Hills, and the first Chest Pain Center in Nashville, Tennessee to achieve accreditation.
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.
“From my perspective, the accreditation was very, very meaningful,” says Thomas E. Cecconi, President and CEO of Mercy Medical Center in Canton, Ohio, the first Chest Pain Center in the nation to receive accreditation. “We have committed ourselves to having a world-class cardiovascular program and a major component of that is meeting a nationally established set of criteria. It demonstrates to the physicians in our program that the board is willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to support that effort. It demonstrates to the community that our commitment and dedication is there and that they will get the best possible care.”
“The Society’s on-site evaluation teams have been extremely impressed by the positive responses they have received to the accreditation process,” says Lipetz. “Hospitals are very anxious to improve their quality of care by using the road map we provide that insures continuing improvement in performance. We provide education to the facilities on how to operate most effectively. It’s an action plan for better patient outcomes –a plan designed to provide a new level of care for patients entering the emergency department with chest pain.”
Many see accreditation as a way to demonstrate dedication to the community and leadership in cardiovascular care.
“Our doctors, nurses and technicians have been systematically measuring and improving care for chest pain patients for five years. We are proud of this first in Texas, Chest Pain Center Accreditation, as it symbolizes our ongoing commitment to the best care for our community,” said Jeffrey S. Holland, CEO of West Houston Medical Center.
"Deaconess Hospital is honored to be the second hospital in the country to be accredited by the Society of Chest Pain Centers. We have a strong commitment to our community to provide superior patient care. The accreditation of our Chest Pain Center demonstrates to the people we serve that we excel in providing care to those individuals with chest pain. We are extremely proud of our community's Emergency Medical Service's personnel, Deaconess Hospital's employees and our Medical Staff who made this accreditation a reality. The accreditation process once again demonstrated our commitment to team work to produce high quality patient care outcomes," said Linda White, President and CEO of Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Indiana.
“This accreditation affirms our leadership in heart care,” says Don Shaffett, CEO of Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster, Texas. “Our medical staff and employees are committed to delivering leading edge heart services to the patients we serve.” Currently, the following Chest Pain Centers have received accreditation:
Mercy Medical Center – Canton, Ohio
Deaconess Hospital – Evansville, Indiana
West Houston Medical Center – Houston, Texas
Clear Lake Medical Center – Webster, Texas
Greenview Regional Medical Center – Bowling, Kentucky
Erlanger Medical Center – Chattanooga, Tennessee
Southern Hills Medical Center – Nashville, Tennessee
Mother Frances Hospital – Tyler, Texas
Lima Memorial Health System – Lima, Ohio
Florida Hospital – Orlando, Florida
Riverside Community Hospital – Riverside, California
Robert Packer Hospital – Sayre, Pennsylvania
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.
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