BVH's emergency department, cath lab and cardiologists worked together with local EMS to receive this accreditation, which emphasizes a multi-disciplinary approach to caring for chest pain patients. BVH's Chest Pain Center is accredited with PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention), meaning that BVH is proficient in caring for chest pain patients through the use of balloon stents in blocked arteries.

"We are pleased to receive the official national chest pain accreditation, but the best reward is being able to offer this excellent standard of care to our community," says Karen Jones, vice president of patient care services at BVH. "More lives are being saved every day due to the availability and quality of this service."

"This accreditation brings validation of the processes we have put in place to provide excellent care for the cardiac patient at Blanchard Valley Hospital," adds Ruth Shade, director of the critical care unit at BVH.

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 Blanchard Valley 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
    - 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

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.
_________________
Blanchard Valley Hospital is a Division of Blanchard Valley Health System, which provides a total continuum of care to more than 100,000 households in an eight-county area. The BVHS mission is to provide a broad continuum of exceptional health-related services in Northwest Ohio.