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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kettering, Sycamore Hospitals Receive Accreditation
From Society of Chest Pain Centers

DAYTON – Kettering and Sycamore hospitals have received another marker of exceptional patient care. Just after both institutions won the JD Power and Associates Service Excellence Award, they have received accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers.

Only 114 hospitals in the entire country have this honor. Kettering and Sycamore join fellow Kettering Medical Center Network affiliate Grandview Hospital as the only three hospitals in southwest Ohio to have this prestigious accreditation. It is good for three years and it certifies that Kettering and Sycamore hospitals met accreditation standards for reducing mortality and improving overall outcomes for heart attack victims. Quick, accurate response can make all the difference.

" Minutes passing equate to heart muscle dying when you’ve suffered a heart attack," said Michael Koerting, Director of Cardiac Services for Kettering Medical Center Network. "That is why it is so important that your front line caregivers in the emergency department to know the latest practices for treating chest pain. This has been a real emphasis for us for several years now, and it is nice to see this kind of recognition coming to our doctors, nurses and support staff.”

“ We have a couple terrific teams at Kettering and Sycamore,” said Peggy Doyle, Emergency Department Director for KMC. “The real reward for them has been the exceptional recovery stories we’ve seen from so many chest pain patients. We’ve hard-wired processes for the use of beta blockers and aspirin in these cases, we’re getting patients into the cath lab quicker, and
we’ve taken many other early-intervention steps that are making a difference.”

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, 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 to 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 Kettering and Sycamore hospitals have demonstrated their expertise and commitment to quality care by meeting or exceeding a wide set of stringent criteria and completing on-site evaluations by a review team. Key areas in which a Chest Pain Center must demonstrate expertise include: outreach, attack and observation programs; unit design, staffing, and management; process improvement and Emergency Department integration.

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