Doylestown Hospital Receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation

Highest Quality Cardiac Care Close to Home

Continuing a tradition of excellence in cardiac care, Doylestown Hospital has received accreditation as a Chest Pain Center from the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Doylestown Hospital is one of only five hospitals in the Delaware Valley to be an accredited Chest Pain Center, and one of just 15 accredited hospitals in Pennsylvania. For patients in our local community, that designation signifies the highest quality care close to home. Accreditation is granted for three years.

Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in Bucks County. Nationally, more than 5 million people enter the hospital with chest pain each year. An accredited Chest Pain Center is not a facility-it is a process that starts from the time a patient activates emergency medical services to the time that patient is discharged. When seconds count, the more quickly a patient receives the right treatment, the better the outcome.

 "There is a great deal of evidence that patients get better care, move through the system quicker and generally have better outcomes with an accredited Chest Pain Center," said John Mitchell, Director of Cardiovascular Services for the Heart Institute of Doylestown Hospital.

As a Chest Pain Center, Doylestown Hospital is best equipped to treat patients with acute coronary syndromes and heart failure that may require emergency angioplasty (used during a heart attack to restore blood flow through a clogged coronary artery by inflating a tiny balloon in it). Doylestown Hospital consistently has a "door-to-balloon time"* of 65 minutes, much less than the American Heart Association recommended 90 minutes. By receiving accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers, Doylestown Hospital has met rigorous standards of care and demonstrated best practices in protocol-driven services. The accreditation confirms Doylestown Hospital's commitment to offer each patient superior care with a team approach that includes emergency medical services, the Emergency Department, cardiologists and nursing staff.

"The accreditation proves that, at the staff level, excellent coordination and teamwork are really the key to achieving outstanding patient outcomes," said Director of Emergency Services Ann Marie Papa, RN, MSN, CEN. David Boland, MD, is Medical Director of the Chest Pain Center.
 
Doylestown Hospital has consistently been recognized for the quality of its cardiac care services. The hospital is ranked in the Top 10 Percent nationally for overall cardiac services, coronary interventions, and cardiac surgery by HealthGrades(r), the leading independent healthcare ratings company. Doylestown Hospital is also five-star rated (the highest rating) for treatment of heart attack and treatment of heart failure three years in a row. 

"Being an accredited Chest Pain Center validates the exemplary care that we provide for our cardiac patients and highlights the overall quality of our heart program," said Chest Pain Center Coordinator Jenn Harrar, RN, BSN.
 Once Doylestown Hospital's new Emergency Department is completed (estimated April 2010), the accredited Chest Pain Center will occupy eight of the 39 new treatment rooms. It will be staffed by ED nurses specially trained in cardiac care. Having designated resources of personnel, protocols, physical space and equipment for these patients offers multiple benefits for both patients and hospital. These include decreasing unnecessary admissions of low-risk patients, while minimizing the rare occurrence of missed diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes. 
 
The Chest Pain Center at Doylestown 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

* Transmission of EKGs from the ambulance while in transit to Doylestown Hospital.

* 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

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.

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.

*Door-to-balloon time is defined as the time between a patient's arrival at the hospital to the time he or she receives emergency angioplasty.