Saint Francis Chest Pain Center Earns National Award

When patients seek treatment for chest pain at Saint Francis Medical Center, they know they are receiving care at a facility that is nationally recognized for excellence. Saint Francis' Chest Pain Center recently received a Silver Performance Achievement Award through the Action Registry of the American College of Cardiology National Cardiovascular Data Registry (ACC-NCDR).

"Just to be an accredited Chest Pain Center is a recognition of excellence in and of itself," says Diane Flesher, RN, BSN, ACCNCDR database manager at Saint Francis. "It means that reviewers have examined every part of the treatment we give to people who show up with chest pain and found it to be excellent."

Saint Francis began participating in the ACC-NCDR's Action Registry (the data collection group that focuses on hospitals' treatment of heart attacks) in 2009. The Silver Performance Achievement Award means the Medical Center had 90 percent compliance for all the registry's measurement categories. "That means that 90 percent of the time or better we follow the guidelines for the treatment of heart attack patients that are set forth by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association," says Flesher.

Those guidelines include:

Giving heart attack patients aspirin upon arrival

Achieving a "door to balloon" time of 90 minutes or less (meaning patients have their arteries opened with a cardiac catheterization intervention less than 90 minutes after arriving at the Medical Center)

Prescribing appropriate medications when heart patients go home

Providing smoking cessation counseling

Providing a referral to an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program

"We have protocols in place to make sure we follow all these guidelines," says Paul H. Holcomb Jr., MD, FACC, FSCAI, cardiologist at Saint Francis. "We also need to give credit to the Emergency Medical Services professionals with whom we work. Everyone works together to ensure our patients receive the care they need when they need it."

In particular, Saint Francis has spent the past three years working on improving its "door to balloon" time. At the end of 2010, the Medical Center's average time was 69.5 minutes -- far quicker than the 90-minute national guideline.

For more information, visit www.sfmc.net or call Saint Francis at 573-331-5877.