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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Shawnee Mission Medical Center
Receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation

Shawnee Mission, KS – November 18, 2004. The Society of Chest Pain Centers has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to Shawnee Mission Medical Center, making it the first accredited Chest Pain Center in both the state of Kansas and the Kansas City metropolitan area, and the 76th in the nation.

“Because more than five million patients will enter hospitals each year with chest pain, a Chest Pain Emergency Center provides measures to significantly reduce heart attack deaths,” said David Vodonick, MD, Shawnee Mission Medical Center Emergency Physician. “Our organized team approach to diagnosing and treating chest pain allows us to markedly reduce the rate of missed heart attack and provide prompt care to our patients.”

Scott Soronen, SCPC's Leader Reviewer, added: "Our onsite review team was especially impressed with the staff at Shawnee Mission for their strong commitment to key element eight of the accreditation process – their Community Outreach Program.”

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 Shawnee Mission 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

“For years, Shawnee Mission Medical Center has provided a variety of high quality cardiac services,” said Samuel H. Turner, Sr., President and CEO. “The Chest Pain Emergency Center was granted accreditation on the first attempt because of our processes already in place that demonstrate our dedication to providing collaborative, patient-focused care in times of medical emergency. Any hospital can say that it has a Chest Pain Emergency Center, but accreditation of a Center assures quality practices.”

About Shawnee Mission Medical Center
Shawnee Mission Medical Center (SMMC) is a 383-bed facility located in suburban Kansas City. SMMC is the second-largest hospital in the Kansas City metropolitan area with nearly 20,000 inpatient admissions and more than 177,000 outpatient admissions in 2003. SMMC has the busiest emergency department in Johnson County, a nationally recognized Center for Women’s Health and delivers more babies each year than any other hospital in the metropolitan area. SMMC employs more than 2,800 local residents and supports an exceptional staff of more than 700 physicians representing 50 medical specialties, the largest medical staff in Kansas City.

For more information about Shawnee Mission Medical Center, contact Shannon Cates at 913-789-5565, or by e-mail at shannon.cates@shawneemission.org.

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