Scott & White Hospital– Round Rock receives Chest Pain Center accreditation

ROUND ROCK, Texas – Scott & White Hospital in Round Rock (roundrock.sw.org) has received full Cycle II Accreditation as a Chest Pain Center from the Society of Chest Pain Centers.
“At Scott & White - Round Rock we’ve integrated best practices and the latest paradigms into our cardiac care processes so that our patients receive state of the art care during that crucial window of time after a cardiac event,” says Dr. Rafael Gonzalez, Director of Cardiology, and Director of the Chest Pain Center at Scott & White - Round Rock.

Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in the U.S., with 600,000 dying annually of heart disease and more than five million Americans visit hospitals each year with chest pain. 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 comes the need to establish standards designed to improve the consistency and quality of care provided to patients. The Society’s accreditation process ensures centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures in acute cardiac medicine.

“The Chest pain center at Scott & White Round Rock (sw.org) demonstrates 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,” explains Dr. Gonzalez.

Chest Pain Centers must demonstrate expertise in the following:

• 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

If you are experiencing symptoms of a heart attack, call 911. For more information on the Scott & White- Round Rock Emergency Department, please call 512-509-0100 or visit roundrock.sw.org.

For more information, contact:

Katherine Voss
Scott & White Healthcare

Media and Public Relations

254-724-4097 or 504-319-8427

kvoss@swmail.sw.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 14, 2009