LVH–Hazleton, LVH–Schuylkill Receive Chest Pain Center Accreditation

The causes of chest pain range from a minor ailment to a serious medical emergency. Regardless of the cause, you should always seek care from a trusted team of experts with the tools and training to effectively diagnose and treat chest pain, which is a symptom of heart attack.

Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–Hazleton and LVH–Schuylkill received Chest Pain Center Accreditation from the American College of Cardiology (ACC). This means both hospitals demonstrate wide-ranging expertise and a deep commitment to providing exceptional care to patients with cardiac symptoms.

Accredited Chest Pain Centers must meet or exceed ACC’s strict criteria and participate in a rigorous on-site evaluation that gauges a hospital’s ability and preparedness to evaluate, diagnose and determine the best treatment for patients experiencing chest pain.

Along with an on-site evaluation, hospitals also must participate in a comprehensive clinical process that involves:
 

• Assessing if benchmarks are being met
• Examining standardized care practices and if variances exist
• Developing an action plan
• Monitoring for sustained success
• Having an on-site expert to assist with continuous improvement and education

Accredited hospitals must have an organized team of doctors, nurses, clinicians and other administrative staff who support efforts leading to better patient education and improved patient outcomes.

“The care of a patient with chest pain or acute coronary syndrome (ACS) requires coordination among the emergency departments, the transfer center, on-call cardiologists and their support team as well as EMS services,” says Eric Elgin, MD, Chief of Cardiology, Lehigh Valley Heart and Vascular Institute. “One marker of successful integration of services across Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) for these patients is Chest Pain Center Accreditation. This achievement is a recognition of hospital and health network implementation of best practices to optimize and improve patient outcomes. More importantly, this allows a framework for continued quality improvement efforts as our treatments evolve and improve.”

Chest Pain Center accredited hospitals are better prepared to treat patients with cardiac complaints. They have a team of well-educated physicians, nurses and hospital staff who can rapidly and efficiently provide lifesaving care with evidence-based and standardized methods. This reduces a patient’s length of stay, decreases readmissions and sustains consistent process improvements with the overall goal to improve patient outcomes.

Lehigh Valley Heart and Vascular Institute consistently delivers exceptional care to those facing a heart emergency. Its team of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons is the most experienced in the region and is consistently ranked among the best in the nation for heart attack survival.

Experts at Lehigh Valley Heart and Vascular Institute can treat heart attacks quickly thanks in part to the rapid heart attack care program MI Alert for Heart Attacks. This program allows us to partner with local emergency responders who can quickly diagnose heart attacks, so treatment is ready when a patient arrives at the hospital.

We also provide leading-edge, lifesaving treatments for serious cardiac conditions like ST-elevated myocardial infarctions (STEMI). Some of these treatments include percutaneous coronary intervention and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Percutaneous coronary intervention is a non-surgical procedure used to treat narrowing of the coronary arteries of the heart found in coronary artery disease. In heart attack cases, this procedure opens blocked vessels to restore blood flow to the heart.

ECMO is a treatment where a machine pumps blood outside your body, adds oxygen to it and returns it to your body.