The Society of Chest Pain Centers has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to Central Baptist Hospital-Lexington, KY.   Central Baptist Hospital received full accreditation status from the Accreditation Review Committee on December 27, 2005.  Central Baptist Hospital is the 4th accredited Chest Pain Center in Kentucky and the 198th in the nation.

“Chest Pain Accreditation is a great accomplishment for our hospital but, more importantly a great asset to our community,” said Christine McIntyre, RN, MHA, Director of the Baptist Heart and Vascular Institute. 

“Being the first Chest Pain Center in Central Kentucky to achieve this national accreditation helps identify Central Baptist as a leader in cardiac care throughout the region,” said Dr. Eric Ruschman, Emergency Department physician and director of the Central Baptist Chest Pain Center.  “This is a great example of the high level of collaboration and competence our staff demonstrates in serving our patients.”

“We have terrific teams at Central Baptist Hospital,” said Cyndi Baxter, RN, MSN, and Director of the Emergency Department.  “We have improved processes to get our patient from the emergency department to the cath lab quicker and we’ve taken other early intervention steps that are making a difference.”

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 the Central Baptist 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
• Assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients quickly
• Effectively treating patients with low risk for acute coronary syndrome and no assignable cause for their symptoms
• Having a functional design that promotes optimal patient care
• Ensuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training
• Maintaining organizational structure and commitment
• Continually seeking to improve processes and procedures
• Supporting community outreach programs that educate the public to promptly seek medical care if they display symptoms of a possible heart attack

About Central Baptist Hospital
At Central Baptist Hospital, our mission is to enhance the physical, spiritual, and emotional health of the people we serve by providing quality and compassionate health services consistent with our Christian heritage.  For more information, contact Ruth Ann Childers at 859-260-6254.

About the Society of Chest Pain Centers
The Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) is an international professional society focused on improving care for patients with acute coronary syndromes and 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.  SCPC is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. 

For more information on the Society of Chest Pain Centers visit www.scpcp.org, or contact Robert Weisenburger Lipetz, Executive Director at (614) 274-9710 or director@scpcp.org.