Hanover Hospital Receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation

Hanover Hospital Receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation

June 28, 2010 -
Hanover Hospital received full Cycle III accreditation status from the Accreditation Review Committee on April 24, 2010. Accreditation expires May 15, 2013.

Hanover Hospital’s Chest Pain Center has demonstrated its expertise and commitment to quality patient care by meeting or exceeding a wide set of stringent criteria and completing onsite evaluations by a review team from the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Key areas in which a Chest Pain Center must demonstrate expertise include:

“The accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers shows the hospital’s commitment to our community for chest pain treatment. We strive to assess and treat each patient quickly and accurately to do what is best for the patient,” said Michael R. Denney, D.O., Director of Emergency Services and Co-Director of the Chest Pain Center at Hanover Hospital.

According to Lawrence S. Freer, M.D., Ph.D., Cardiologist and Co-Director of the Chest Pain Center at Hanover Hospital, “Achieving Chest Pain Center Accreditation is a commentary of how committed the physicians, support staff and administration are to providing acute cardiac care at a level set by national guidelines. We regard this effort as an opportunity to measure our performance against other hospitals similarly committed to excellence in cardiac care. This is an ongoing improvement initiative (process) for our hospital.”

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.

“Achieving hospital-wide accreditation for chest pain treatment can offer assurance to our patients that every step of the process used to sort out the cause of a patient’s chest pain has been examined for any delays or lapses of treatment that could affect the outcome from a true cardiac event,” explained Janet Cutsail, RN, BSN, Chest Pain Center Coordinator, Hanover Hospital. “This process includes looking at pre-hospital to in-hospital emergency management until hospital discharge. This procedure uses priority quality measures as defined by the American College of Cardiology, CMS (Medicare), The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association.”

For more information on the Society of Chest Pain Centers visit www.scpcp.org or contact Kay Styer Holmes, RN BSN MSA, Director of Accreditation Services at (614) 442-5950 or kholmes@scpcp.org.

For information about Chest Pain Center services at Hanover Hospital, contact Kathy A. Miller, R.N., BSN, MHA FACCA, Administrative Director, Heart & Vascular Institute and Community Health Improvement at (717) 633-2158 or millerk@hanoverhospital.org.

In September 2009 Hanover Hospital announced its affiliation with Penn State Hershey Heart and Vascular Institute at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The two officially united to expand their partnership to provide York and Adams County cardiology patients with increased access to specialized cardiovascular services, enhanced heart failure management and treatments and clinical studies, including those involving new drug therapies and heart assist devices.

Hanover Hospital has received gold status recognition from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology for improvement in the treatment of patients who are admitted to Hanover Hospital for acute myocardial infarction, commonly called a heart attack. To receive a gold award, participating hospitals must achieve an 85% or greater performance rating for all measures used to treat an acute heart attack for a period of two consecutive years.

Earlier this year, Hanover Hospital also received a gold award from the American Heart Association’s Get With the Guidelines data registry for achieving an 85% or greater performance rating for the treatment of heart failure patients for two consecutive years.

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 SCPC provides accreditation to facilities striving for optimum Chest Pain Center care. SCPC is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.