Contact: Doris Thomas, Vice President, 270-745-1589
The Medical Center at Bowling Green received full Cycle III accreditation with PCI from the Accreditation Review Committee of the Society for Chest Pain Centers on March 20, 2010. The Medical Center is the 40th accredited Chest Pain Center in the nation and is the only hospital in Southcentral Kentucky accredited with PCI. Percutaneous coronary intervention, referred to as PCI, is the use of cardiac catheterization to treat the narrowed coronary arteries of the heart.
“While chest pain accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers demonstrates the rigorous standards we meet in our treatment plan for heart attack patients, accreditation with PCI is of even greater value to our patients and their families,” said Dr. Gary Howerton, Medical Director of The Medical Center Chest Pain Center and Emergency Department. “PCI allows our interventional cardiologists to go directly to the source of a blockage, thus preserving heart muscle and potentially reducing mortality.”
“With The Medical Center, residents of Southcentral Kentucky have access to life-saving treatment without having to travel great distances,” added Marita Hockstedler, Chest Pain Center Coordinator and Clinical Manager of the Cardiac Catheterization Lab for The Medical Center. “In the event of a heart attack, time is of the essence, and quick treatment is critical in preserving heart muscle.”
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 The Medical 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
About The Medical Center
The Medical Center at Bowling Green is the flagship hospital for Commonwealth Health Corporation (CHC). Located in Bowling Green, Ky., The Medical Center is a 337-bed, full service, not-for-profit hospital specializing in heart, cancer care, obstetrics and neonatology, and orthopaedic services. With a mission to care for people and improve the quality of life in the communities it serves, CHC and its entities including The Medical Center at Bowling Green contributed $56.9 million in community benefit in fiscal year 2009. The Medical Center treats patients regardless of their ability to pay and annually provides millions in community benefit through charity care for the uninsured and shortfalls in governmental reimbursements (Medicare and Medicaid). To learn more, visit www.themedicalcenter.org.
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 Kay Styer Holmes, RN, BSN, MSA, Director of Accreditation Services at (614) 442-5950 or kholmes@scpcp.org
