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Mercy General Hospital receives Chest Pain Center with PCI Accreditation
from the Society of Chest Pain Centers
Mercy General Hospital is the only hospital in the greater Sacramento region accredited by the Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) and is proud to join other leaders in heart attack care from across the nation with this distinction. Read on for the announcement released earlier this month by SCPC. |
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Mercy General Hospital is the first and only
Accredited Chest Pain Center with PCI in Sacramento
Sacramento, CA, August 14, 2009 - Mercy General Hospital, located at 4001 J Street, Sacramento, recently received full Cycle II accreditation with PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) from the Accreditation Review Committee of the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Mercy General Hospital is the first and only accredited chest pain center in Sacramento. Accreditation is valid through July 26, 2012.
"This distinction signifies our consistent systematic approach for chest pain patients ensures better outcomes," stated Doris Frazier, Vice President, Cardiovascular Services, Mercy General Hospital. "This integrated approach provides timely treatment of patients experiencing chest pain from prompt identification of symptoms in the community to swift response from Emergency Medical Responders to immediate treatment in the Emergency Department to direct access to any necessary procedures in the catheritization lab," added Frazier.
"We are dedicated to provide the best in heart attack care," stated Frazier. 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 Mercy General 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:
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Integrating the emergency department with the local emergency medical system
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Assessing, diagnosing, and treating heart attack patients quickly, with a commitment to have 24 hour a day/7 days a week Cath lab access to open blocked arteries
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Effectively treating patients with low risk for acute coronary syndrome and no assignable cause for their symptoms
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Continually seeking to improve processes and procedures
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Ensuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training
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Maintaining organizational structure and commitment
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Having a functional design that promotes optimal patient care
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Supporting community outreach programs that educate the public to promptly seek medical care if they display symptoms of a possible heart attack
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About Mercy General Hospital
Mercy General Hospital has been serving the Sacramento community for more than 100 years. Founded by the Sisters of Mercy, Mercy General has been at its current site in the heart of East Sacramento since 1925. Mercy General Hospital has 342 licensed beds, a physician staff of more than 800, delivers 2,800 babies annually and leads the state in open-heart surgery. Mercy General is one of six Sacramento area hospitals that are part of Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), a system of 42 hospitals and medical centers in California, Arizona and Nevada and the nation's eighth largest healthcare system. In 2008, CHW provided more than $966 million in community benefit and free care for the poor.
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. |
