Accredited Chest Pain Center Designation Earned

Marion Health has earned the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center from the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Marion Health received full Cycle II accreditation status from the Accreditation Review Committee on Dec. 15, 2008, making it one of only 20 accredited facilities in Indiana.

“We are very proud of the level of care we are able to provide our Healthcare Community,” says Melo-Dee Perez, M.S., R.N., Chest Pain Center Coordinator. “Our patients can rest easier knowing they are in very caring and competent hands should they experience a coronary event.”

Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in the United States, with 600,000 dying annually of heart disease, and more than 5 million Americans visit hospitals each year with chest pain. Marion Health’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. Marion Health demonstrated its expertise and commitment to quality patient care by meeting or exceeding a wide set of stringent criteria and by completing on-site evaluations by a review team from the Society of Chest Pain Centers.

These criteria 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; continually seeking to improve processes and procedures; ensuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training; maintaining organizational structure and commitment; having a functional design that promotes optimal patient care; and supporting community outreach programs that educate the public to promptly seek medical care if they display symptoms of a possible heart attack.

“As an accredited Chest Pain Center, we have committed ourselves to delivering evidence-based medicine,” furthers Perez. “This means we will be constantly reviewing literature for best practices and implementing changes that reflect that standard of care.”

For more information about the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center and the Society of Chest Pain Centers, please visit www.scpcp.org.