Heart & Vascular Center
Accredited Chest Pain Centers
85% of heart muscle damage occurs in the first two hours of a heart attack.
Heart Attack Symptoms often include tightness or pressure in your chest. It may also spread to your shoulders, neck and arms. Only 13% of women consider heart disease their greatest health risk, yet it kills more women every year than the next seven causes of death combined - including cancer.
When you experience warning signs, call 911 or get immediatelty to one of the Mercy accredited Chest Pain Centers at: Our specialists can quickly assess chest pain, offering you the best chance to survive a heart attack. You would expect nothing less from the region's most trusted, comprehensive resource for cardiac care.
Read below to see what being an accredited Chest Pain Center means to you and your loved ones.
About the Society of Chest Pain Centers
Established September 18, 1998, the Society of Chest Pain Centers is a professional society without walls 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.
Goals of a Chest Pain Center
One of the goals of a Chest Pain Center is to significantly reduce the time it takes for a patient experiencing symptoms of a possible heart attack to see a physician, thus reducing the time to treatment during the critical early stages, when treatments are most effective. Another is to provide a specialized observation setting in which physicians are better able to 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 occupying a CCU bed.
The growth of Chest Pain Centers has led to efforts to educate the community about the risks of heart disease and the importance of seeking help early, immediately upon feeling the symptoms of a possible heart attack.
Most heart attacks present identifiable symptoms prior to serious damage to the heart. However, patients often do not feel that their symptoms are significant enough to seek professional help. By waiting, patients unfortunately put themselves at a much greater risk of injury or death.
Why you should be sure your hospital is accredited
- An accredited hospital's emergency department offers a full-spectrum emergency cardiac care; providing rapid diagnosis and fast track treatment before a situation worsens, often preventing a severe heart attack from occuring.
- Fosters cooperative relationships between cardiologists and emergency physicians
- Standardizes care for those entering with Chest Pain results in more efficient use of the ED, which reduces or eliminates bottle-necks in the emergency department
- Decreases errors
- Decreases delays
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