THE MEDICAL CENTER IN KENTUCKY RECEIVES CHEST PAIN CENTER ACCREDITATION

BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY – June 9, 2004 . The Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to The Medical Center, making it the 40th in the nation to be accredited. According to SCPC, The 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 SCPC.

“This accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers signifies The Medical Center's commitment to providing the highest quality and most comprehensive cardiac care for the residents of South Central Kentucky,” said Connie Smith, Chief Executive Officer of The Medical Center. The Medical Center provides the area's only complete heart program that includes open heart surgery. “Our dedication to ensuring quality care starts when a patient walks through the doors of our ER with chest pain and continues through diagnosis and open heart surgery if needed.”

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. 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. SCPC's accreditation process insures centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures in acute cardiac medicine.

As an accredited Chest Pain Center , The Medical Center has demonstrated its expertise in key areas including: integrating the emergency department with the local emergency medical system; assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients quickly; and effectively treating patients with low risk for acute coronary syndrome and no assignable cause for their symptoms. The Medical Center 's approach to chest pain 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.

The Medical Center at Bowling Green is a 330-bed facility, which has been serving patients for over 78 years. Commonwealth Health Corporation, based in Bowing Green, is the parent company of The Medical Center, which also has facilities in Scottsville and Franklin , Kentucky . The combined facilities offer 512 licensed beds to provide for the healthcare needs of area residents.

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 or contact Robert Weisenburger Lipetz , Executive Director at (614) 442-5950 or director@scpcp.org

For more information on The Medical Center, contact Doris C. Thomas, Vice President at (270)745-1589.

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