Baptist Medical Center Nassau Receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation

Fernandina Beach, Florida, August 20, 2008 -- Baptist Medical Center Nassau has earned the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center from the international Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC), it was announced today by Administrator Jim Mayo.

"This means we meet the highest standards of care for patients with chest pain and other warning signs of heart attacks," he says. To earn this voluntary designation, the hospital invited the SCPC to perform a thorough evaluation of its emergency procedures.

"On July 15, a team of experts reviewed our organization structure, facility, staff competency and training, and our working relationship with the local Emergency Medical Services (EMS). We demonstrated our expertise in assessing, diagnosing and treating patients quickly and appropriately."

About Chest Pain Centers
According to the SCPC, an accredited Chest Pain Center is a hospital emergency center that offers fast, evidence-based diagnosis and treatment for chest pain and heart attacks, provided by a highly skilled team with advanced knowledge in the management of heart attacks. A national study by Emory University showed that such hospitals achieve better patient outcomes than non-accredited hospitals, which can mean the difference between life and death for a patient experiencing a heart attack.

With its Chest Pain Center accreditation, Baptist Nassau has become the fourth Baptist Health hospital to have earned this national distinction. They are among only 1,500 accredited Chest Pain Centers nationwide. Baptist Downtown, which includes Baptist Heart Hospital, is further accredited in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), which include stent procedures and balloon angioplasty.

Using the Chest Pain Center protocol, physicians can reduce time to treatment during the critical early stages of a heart attack when treatments are most effective, and they can better monitor patients when their condition is unclear.

"Such observation helps ensure that a patient is neither sent home too early nor needlessly admitted," says David Pietrasiuk MD, director of Emergency Services, and director of the Chest Pain Center at Baptist Medical Center Nassau. "And, when a patient is truly having a heart attack, everything is already in place to start the immediate, life-saving, interventions that have been shown to improve outcomes. These are started when the patient first arrives at the door of our facility."

Protocols also require that heart attacks are treated within 70 minutes and cardiac catheterization performed within 90 minutes of arrival in the emergency department. "If this high level of interventional care is needed, our system allows Baptist Nassau patients to be quickly transported to Baptist Heart Hospital for further treatment well within the designated timeframe," he adds.

"Speed is important because the longer the heart muscle is deprived of oxygen, the more damage there is to the heart," says Paul Dillahunt, MD, a Baptist Nassau cardiologist. He and his associates in Southern Heart Group, which also has offices in Jacksonville, together with the hospital ER staff, local EMS, and clinical staff at the Heart Hospital downtown, have been refining and streamlining the treatment process for several years. "The accreditors who visited last month were impressed that we've had such advanced systems in place for so long," he says.

A Coordinated System
"Having all four Baptist Health hospitals achieve Chest Pain Center accreditation is a major accomplishment," Mayo says. "It means that more of the Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia region will have live-saving care close at hand." Each hospital has worked extensively with its local EMS to establish a coordinated system of communication and rapid transportation so patients receive the care they need quickly.

"The positive impact of this achievement to our community is tremendous," says Hugh Greene, president and CEO of Baptist Health. "We thank our Emergency Center physicians, nurses and staff, cardiologists, and Life Flight and EMS team members for working so closely together in integrating processes and expediting care for people with chest pain. Through collaboration, we can save many more lives."

Heart Attack Symptoms Not Always Clear

Gail Powers of Fernandina Beach was working in her yard this spring when she began to feel nauseated. As a diabetic, she thought it was caused by her blood sugar being too low. After testing her blood sugar and getting a bite to eat, she returned to her yard work until 15 minutes later when the nausea and sweating intensified.

Powers then went inside to take a shower and noticed that her legs were extremely weak. She remembered learning that women have different heart attack symptoms and immediately called 9-1-1. Nassau County Rescue brought her to Baptist Nassau's Emergency Center while her blood pressure continued to drop.

Life Flight was called and Powers was prepared for helicopter transport to Baptist Downtown. While in the helicopter, Powers began to experience chest pain for the first time. However, after meditating because she thought she was dying, her pain subsided. "I knew that I couldn't give up," she says. She credits this to knowing how much her 18-year-old grandson, who suffers from type 1 diabetes, needs her.

After Life Flight landed at Baptist Downtown, Powers was rushed into the cardiac catheterization laboratory and received a stent. She spent five days in Baptist Heart Hospital and continues to progress.

The total time from when Powers came through Baptist Nassau's front door to her cardiac catheterization procedure was 70 minutes -- less than the 90-minute goal.

She remembers the people who helped her the most. "Life Flight, the doctors and nurses were all so professional and took such good care of me," she states.