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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Akron General Medical Center
Receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation

Akron, OH – November 11. The Society of Chest Pain Centers has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to Akron General Medical Center making it the 10th accredited Chest Pain Center in Ohio, the 75th in the nation, and Summit County’s only accredited chest pain center.

“This important designation formalizes the Heart & Vascular Center’s long-standing leadership role in providing high quality heart care to our patients,” said George Litman, MD, chief of Cardiology at Akron General Medical Center and Medical Director of its Heart & Vascular Center. “We are pleased to receive national status as a Chest Pain Center.”

“An accreditation as a Chest Pain Center indicates that Akron General’s Heart & Vascular Center is providing care that meets a strict criteria for quality, safety and speed. For the patient, this is an assurance of full-spectrum acute cardiac care with rapid diagnosis and fast track treatment before a situation worsens,” said George Litman, MD.

“This accreditation is a testament to the innovative and advanced heart care offered by the superb professional staff at Akron General Medical Center,” said Alan Bleyer, President and CEO of Akron General Medical Center. “Patients should be comforted to know that the very best in cardiac care is right here.”

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 insures centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures in acute cardiac medicine.

The Chest Pain Center at Akron General 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. 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

About Akron General Medical Center
Akron General Medical Center is a 511-bed, 26-bassinet, adult, tertiary-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital with regional referral centers in Cardiology, Cancer, Women's Health and Orthopedics. It is staffed by more than 1,000 physicians, 3,400 healthcare professionals and support staff and 550 volunteers who serve a population of more than 1.2 million people throughout Northeast Ohio. Akron General Medical Center ranks among U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Hospitals," and Solucient's "Top 100 Hospitals" in the nation. It has repeatedly been named "Akron's Most Preferred Hospital for Overall Quality and Image" by National Research Corporation.

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