Englewood Community Hospital ~ Fourth Accredited Chest Pain Center In Florida

ENGLEWOOD, Fla., May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society of Chest Pain Centers has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to Englewood Community Hospital, making it the fourth in Florida and the 32nd in the nation to be accredited.

“We strive to achieve excellence throughout our facility, and we are pleased to provide cardiac patients a quality of care consistent with nationally recognized standards. Our entire medical staff and all of our employees are honored by this distinction,” states Bob Meade, Chief Executive Officer of Englewood Community Hospital.

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 of a possible heart attack, 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 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 ensures centers meet or exceed quality-of- care measures in acute cardiac medicine.

The Chest Pain Center at Englewood Community Hospital 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 * Having a functional design that promotes optimal patient care * Ensuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training * Maintaining organizational structure and commitment * Continually seeking to improve processes and procedures * Supporting community outreach programs that educate the public to promptly seek medical care if they have display symptoms of a possible heart attack About Englewood Community Hospital 

Since 1985, Englewood Community Hospital has been serving local residents and visitors to the area with a comprehensive array of healthcare services, the latest technology, and a compassionate, family-like atmosphere. We are an acute care hospital, with a medical staff of approximately 125 highly trained physicians, and close to 400 employees and 200 volunteers. At Englewood Community Hospital, you will find the high caliber of medical staff, sophisticated technology, and diagnostic and treatment services typically found only in major metropolitan hospitals. The Hospital is also proud to offer 24-hour board certified emergency care. For more information, visit http://www.englewoodcommhospital.com/ .

About the Society of Chest Pain Centers

The Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) is an international professional society focused on improving care for patients with acute coronary syndromes and related maladies. The Society is committed to improving the quality of patient care through protocol-based medicine and the adoption of process improvement science to healthcare. SCPC is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. For more information, visit http://www.scpcp.org/ .

For more information on Englewood Community Hospital, contact Jim Sproul, Director of Marketing and Development, at (941) 473-5036.

For more information on the Society of Chest Pain Centers, please contact Robert Weisenburger Lipetz, Executive Director at (614) 274-9710 or director@scpcp.org.

Society of Chest Pain Centers

CONTACT: Jim Sproul, Director of Marketing and Development,+1-941-473-5036, for Englewood Community Hospital; or Robert WeisenburgerLipetz, Executive Director, +1-614-274-9710, or director@scpcp.org , forSociety of Chest Pain Centers