Rhode Island Hospital One of Three in New England To Receive Chest Pain Center Accreditation
(posted June 29, 2009)
Rhode Island Hospital (RIH) has become the only hospital in Rhode Island to have a chest pain center receive accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers. The Society accredits centers that meet specific quality criteria related to the provision of care to patients in need of acute cardiac services. RIH is one of only three hospitals in New England to receive this accreditation. The other two accredited hospitals are in Connecticut. RIH’s chest pain center has met or exceeded a wide set of stringent criteria, including:
· 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
· Continually seeking to improve processes and procedures
· Ensuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training
· 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 accreditation is a marker of achievement for the whole institution’s ability to provide high-quality care for our acute chest pain patients,” said Anthony Napoli, MD, director of the Chest Pain Center. “This continuum of care includes an initial risk assessment in the Emergency Department, with immediate treatment for high-risk patients who are or may be having heart attacks, and care for low-risk chest pain patients in the Emergency Department’s Chest Pain Unit.”
Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in the United States, with 600,000 dying annually of heart disease and more than 5 million Americans visiting 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.
Napoli is also affiliated with the University Emergency Medicine Foundation.