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Press Release
Central DuPage Hospital ~ Second Accredited Chest Pain Center in Illinois
WINFIELD, IL – March 26, 2004. The Society of Chest Pain Centers has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Illinois, making it the second in Illinois and the 31st in the nation to be accredited.
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 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 ensures centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures in acute cardiac medicine.
The Chest Pain Center at Central DuPage Hospital 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. 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
- Ensuring 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
- Early Heart Attack Warning Symptoms
About Central DuPage Hospital
Central DuPage Hospital (CDH), Winfield, is a 361-bed acute care hospital and center for routine and specialized medical and surgical services. Opened in 1964, the hospital is part of Central DuPage Health, which includes six member organizations and nearly 30 sites of care in DuPage and Kane Counties. The medical staff consists of nearly 700 physicians representing over 40 specialties and subspecialties.
CDH’s Emergency Department, a Level II+ Trauma Center, is the busiest in DuPage County with over 60,000 visits a year. The ED provides high level emergency medical care and treatment for trauma patients, as well as a full scope of diagnostic personnel and equipment around the clock. The hospital also has five units with state-of-the-art equipment and specially trained staff. Convenient care centers in Naperville, St. Charles, Wheaton, Bartlett and Bloomingdale log more than 149,000 visits annually.
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 Central DuPage Hospital, contact Kim McKeown, Public Relations Manager at kim_mckeown@cdh.org.
Society Media Contact
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