San Martin Achieves Chest Pain Center Accreditation

Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican announces that its San Martín Campus has received Chest Pain Center Accreditation from the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care (SCPC).

Hospitals which have received SCPC accreditation have a demonstrably higher level of expertise in dealing with patients who arrive with symptoms of a heart attack.

Accreditation emphasizes the importance of standardized diagnostic and treatment programs that provide more efficient and effective evaluation, as well as more appropriate and rapid treatment, of those with chest pain and other heart-attack symptoms. Chest-pain centers also serve as a point of entry into the healthcare system to evaluate and treat other medical problems, and help promote healthier lifestyles in an attempt to reduce the risk factors for heart attack. SCPC is an international not-for-profit organization that focuses on transforming cardiovascular care by assisting facilities in their effort to create communities of excellence that bring together quality, cost and patient satisfaction.

To become an Accredited Chest Pain Center, the San Martín Campus engaged in rigorous evaluation by SCPC for its ability to assess, diagnose, and treat patients who may be experiencing a heart attack. To the community the San Martín campus serves, this means that processes are in place that meet strict criteria aimed at:

• Reducing the time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis and treatment
• Treating patients more quickly during the critical window of time when the integrity of the heart muscle can be preserved
• Monitoring patients when it is not certain that they are having a heart attack to ensure that they are not sent home too quickly or needlessly admitted to the hospital

“People tend to wait when they think they might be having a heart attack, and that’s a mistake,” said Vicky Van Meetren, president and CEO of Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican, San Martín Campus. “The average patient arrives in the emergency department more than two hours after the onset of symptoms, but what they don't realize is that the sooner a heart attack is treated, the less damage to the heart and the better the outcome for them.”

St. Rose Dominican-San Martín’s state-of-the-art healthcare encompasses the entire continuum of care for the heart patient and includes such focal points as Emergency Medical System dispatch, emergency department, catheterization lab, quality assurance, and community outreach programs. By becoming an Accredited Chest Pain Center, the San Martín Campus has enhanced the quality of care for the cardiac patient and has demonstrated its commitment to higher standards.