MCMINNVILLE, Tenn., June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society of Chest Pain Centers has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to River Park Hospital, making it the eighth in Tennessee and the 36th in the nation to be accredited.
“The entire process of expediting care for the patient was rewarding,” states Maria Ryan, Chief Nursing Officer at River Park Hospital. Ryan adds, “It is difficult at times to diagnose a heart attack. The symptoms are different for women and may include abdominal pain, jaw pain, or even back pain. Some women only experience fatigue. Time is muscle. If you think you are having symptoms associated with a heart attack call 911. Upon arrival, the ambulance service will take a brief history, give oxygen, obtain an EKG and fax it to the emergency department, start an IV, give the patient an aspirin and a nitroglycerin tablet. Once inside our emergency department we are going to work quickly to identify if you are having a heart attack and which type. One type is identified through history and an EKG; the other one is history and blood work. The different types are treated differently.”
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 insures centers meet or exceed quality-of- care measures in acute cardiac medicine.
The Chest Pain Center at River Park Hospital, McMinnville, Tennessee 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 River Park Hospital
HCA Tennessee is the most comprehensive healthcare network in Middle Tennessee and the Chattanooga-area offering more choices of hospitals and access to affordable, quality healthcare. Through the HCA network of hospitals in Tennessee, we serve over 82,400 admissions and 293,000 emergency room visits per year system-wide, and are nationally recognized in the areas of cardiology, orthopedics, oncology, neurology and women’s health. In 2002, there were over 9,500 births, 990 cardiac surgeries, 7,400 cardiac catheterization procedures and 1,100 cancer research protocol patients throughout the network. With over 2,200 licensed beds and a network of over 3000 physicians in 37 specialties within the state, HCA’s Tennessee hospitals provide care for patients in both metropolitan and rural areas. These facilities employ more than 11,000 individual, provide salaries exceeding $600 million, and contribute to an investment of over $3 billion within the state of Tennessee. For more information about the services offered and health plans accepted by HCA Tennessee hospitals, please call (800) 242-5662 or (931) 815-4300. You may also visit either of our websites at TriStarHealth.com or RiverParkHospital.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 River Park Hospital, contact Susan Barrett, Media Relations at (931) 815-4299 or susan.barrett@hcahealthcare.com .
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: Susan Barrett, Media Relations of River Park Hospital,+1-931-815-4299, or susan.barrett@hcahealthcare.com ; or Robert WeisenburgerLipetz, Executive Director of the Society of Chest Pain Centers,+1-614-274-9710, or director@scpcp.org
Web site: http://www.scpcp.org/http://tristarhealth.com/http://riverparkhospital.com/http:///director@scpcp.org