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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Aultman Hospital, Canton, Ohio
Receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation

Canton, OH – October 15. The Society of Chest Pain Centers has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to Aultman Hospital, Canton, OH. Making it the 7th accredited Chest Pain Center in Ohio and the 67th in the nation.

“Earning this distinction is representative of Aultman’s commitment to high quality health care,” said Martin Tursky, vice president of the Aultman Heart Center. “Aultman’s Chest Pain Center physicians and staff are dedicated to meeting the cardiac needs of our patients by providing state-of-the-art medical care.”

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 Aultman 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

“Additionally, The Aultman Heart Center and Aultman Emergency Department partnered with local emergency medical response teams (EMS) to improve the timeliness of heart attack diagnosis and treatment with ECG NOW,” said John Paulowski, M.D., cardiologist at Aultman Hospital. “Using this new technology, medical personnel transmit a clear, accurate electrocardiogram instantly via cell phone while they are either on the scene or transporting a patient to the hospital. This accreditation, along with ECG NOW, distinguishes Aultman from other hospitals in our market.”

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. Established in 1998, the Society is dedicated to patient advocacy and focusing on ischemic heart disease. Central to its mission is the question, “What is right for the patient?” In answer, the Society promotes protocol-based medicine, often delivered through a Chest Pain Center model to address the diagnosis and treatment of acute coronary syndromes, heart failure, and to promote the adoption of process improvement science by healthcare providers. SCPC is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

For more information on the Society of Chest Pain Centers visit www.scpcp.org, or contact Robert Weisenburger Lipetz, Executive Director at (614) 442-5950 or director@scpcp.org.

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