MGH Achieves New Status as Accredited Chest Pain Center

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

“Accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers is a symbol of our commitment to create efficiencies in our day-to-day care centered on the latest evidenced-based medicine,” says Melo-Dee Collins, M.S.N., M.S.M., AGPCNP-BC, R.N., R.C.I.S., Cardiovascular Service Line Director and Chest Pain Center Coordinator. It is a commitment to increase community awareness of heart disease as we encourage health and wellness. Even more importantly, it is a commitment to do everything we can to help our patients not only survive, but have the best possible outcome so they can return to their lives.”

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

“This designation is held by only 14% of hospitals in the United States,” furthers Collins. “I’m honored to lead our Marion Health healthcare team in striving for clinical excellence and providing our community with quality cardiac care close to home.”