MGH Once Again Earns Chest Pain Center Designation

Marion Health has once again earned the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center from the Society of Chest Pain Centers.

“We are proud of our commitment to provide excellent emergency and cardiac care to Grant County and the surrounding community,” says Melo-Dee Perez, M.S., R.N., R.C.I.S., Chest Pain Center Coordinator. This accreditation is possible because of the work and commitment of a multi-disciplinary team that includes employees from various departments, EMS, dispatch, Emergency physicians and Cardiologists.”

As an Accredited Chest Pain Center, Marion Health ensures that patients who arrive at the hospital complaining of chest pain or other symptoms of a heart attack receive the treatment necessary during the critical window of time when the integrity of the heart muscle can be preserved.

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 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 undergoing an onsite review by a specialized team from the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Key areas in which an Accredited Chest Pain Center must demonstrate expertise include the following:

• 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
• 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, virtually every employee and physician caring for a cardiac patient has committed themselves 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.”