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 Covenant Medical Center has been officially designated as the region’s first accredited Cycle III Chest Pain Center with Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI).
There are 87 accredited chest pain centers in Texas but only 14 have been designated as Cycle III.
“It’s a mark of a center of excellence. This accreditation verifies we have good outcomes, streamlined processes and a completely integrated, comprehensive program involving more than just one department,” Patricia Freier, B.S.N., R.N., R.C.I.S., education nurse specialist and chest pain center coordinator for the Covenant Heart and Vascular Institute said. “It’s the right thing to do for this community and as a result we will constantly be improving our program.”
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 educating the public, reducing the time it takes to receive treatment and increasing the accuracy and effectiveness of treatment.
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 Covenant Medical Center – 19th Street Campus 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
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