St. Joseph Regional Health Center
Receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation
BRYAN, TX – St. Joseph Regional Health Center joined an exclusive group of accredited hospitals whose goal is to teach the public to recognize and react to the early symptoms of a possible heart attack, reduce the time that it takes to receive cardiac treatment, and increase the accuracy and effectiveness of that treatment.
St. Joseph Regional Health Center’s leadership announced this week the facility has received full accreditation status as a designated Chest Pain Center from the Society of Chest Pain Centers in Columbus, Ohio. The designation came following a survey from the SCPC’s Accreditation Review Committee early in 2006. St. Joseph Regional Health Center is the 45th accredited Chest Pain Center in Texas and the 303rd in the nation.
“To the public, this designation means that they have an accredited center that has proven itself against the best national standards for the care of a heart attack,” said Peter Gray, Vice President of Service Lines for SJRHC. “Because that initial point of contact is our Emergency Center, that means this care is available to them 24 hours a day.” The current SJRHC mortality rate for heart attack patients is less than 6 percent, which is equal to best performers in the United States.
“We’re extraordinarily proud of this designation and the care we provide to our patients,” said Beverly Welch, Director of the Emergency Center at SJRHC. “This requires a team effort – from the moment a patient walks into the Emergency Center with chest pain or we get the call from a paramedic in the field, we all understand what needs to happen to get the right care to that person in the quickest amount of time possible.”
SJRHC works to provide scientific evidence-based care to every patient with a heart attack. “We call it ‘Triple A’ care,” said Amy Plotts, coordinator of the chest pain program. “That means all patients, all of the time, with all of the aspects of their care.” Some of the aspects of care for heart attack patients include receiving appropriate medication upon arrival to the Emergency Center; receiving cardiac catheter intervention within 90 minutes of arrival; and appropriate medication upon discharge from the hospital.
Plotts said the Emergency Center is currently at greater than 95 percent compliance with providing "Triple A" heart attack care. “We have a tremendously dedicated team that is working together on this program. This is a direct result of the professional cardiac care provided by our physicians and staff on a daily basis.”
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 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,” said Bill Bass, M.D., Director of Emergency Medicine at SJRHC.
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. Accreditation for SJRHC runs through May 31, 2009.
Located in the Emergency Center at St. Joseph Regional Health Center in Bryan, the Chest Pain 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
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
Although it is only SJRHC in Bryan that has been accredited, Plotts said the three Emergency Centers in its rural hospitals in Caldwell, Madisonville and Navasota all have been presented the protocols SJRHC follows and work closely with the Chest Pain Center when they have patients with signs or symptoms of a heart attack.
St. Joseph Regional Health Center is the anchor facility for St. Joseph Health System, a health ministry of the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio. Established in 1936, SJRHC is a 214-bed health care center offering the community’s Lead Level III Trauma Center, an extensive inpatient and outpatient surgery program, and is known throughout the region for its cardiac, cancer and rehabilitation programs. SJRHC includes St. Joseph Regional Rehabilitation Center; a freestanding facility with includes a 31-bed rehabilitation unit and a 30-bed Skilled Unit; and Grimes St. Joseph Health Center, a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital in Navasota.
About the Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC)
The Society of Chest Pain Centers is a patient centric non-profit international professional organization focused upon improving care for patients with acute coronary syndromes and other related maladies. Established in 1998, the Society is dedicated to patient advocacy and focusing on ischemic heart disease. Central to its mission is the question, “What is right for the patient?” In answer, the Society promotes protocol-based medicine, often delivered through a Chest Pain Center model to address the diagnosis and treatment of acute coronary syndromes, heart failure, and to promote the adoption of process improvement science by healthcare providers. To best fulfill this mission, the Society of Chest Pain Centers provides accreditation to facilities striving for optimum Chest Pain Center care. SCPC is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.
For more information on the Society of Chest Pain Centers visit www.scpcp.org, or contact Robert Lipetz, Executive Director at (614) 442-5950 or director@scpcp.org.
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