Northwest Medical Center-Springdale receives accreditation

Northwest Medical Center-Springdale, a hospital of healthcare provider Northwest Health, has been accredited as a Cycle 6 Chest Pain Center with Primary PCI (Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.) The Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care gave the rating and is the accreditation arm of the American College of Cardiology.

“Providing the highest quality of services for patients in need of heart care is a primary focus of our hospital,” said Hans Driessnack, CEO of Northwest Medical Center-Springdale. “Our team here works hard to deliver evidenced-based care as quickly as possible to patients with chest pain, patients having a heart attack needing treatment in the Cardiac Cath Lab, those requiring surgery and to those recovering from a cardiac arrest through cardiac rehab. This national recognition validates our continued commitment.”

An accredited chest pain center uses an evidence-based, protocol-driven and systematic approach to cardiac patient care, and this allows clinicians to reduce the time to treatment in the early stages of a heart attack, according to a news release. Accredited facilities better monitor patients when it’s not clear whether a patient is having a coronary event. This monitoring ensures that patients are not sent home too early or admitted needlessly.

Heart attacks are the top cause of death in the United States, with more than 600,000 people dying annually of heart disease. More than 5 million U.S. residents with chest pain visit hospitals annually. Heart disease is the top cause of death in Arkansas, with about 8,000 people dying from it each year. The state is consistently ranked in the top five states for heart attack deaths, and it was third in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The higher percentages of people who smoke and are overweight, along with other health risks such as lack of exercise and diabetes, have contributed to the high ranking.

The Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care established the Chest Pain Center accreditation process as a result of a growing number of facilities seeking to establish standards and adopt best practices in the quality of care for patients experiencing chest pain. The process ensures that hospitals meet or exceed an array of criteria and undergo an onsite review by a team of specialists. Hospitals that receive accreditation have a higher level of expertise in dealing with patients who have heart attack symptoms.

Accredited hospitals emphasize the importance of standard diagnostic and treatment programs that provide more efficient and effective evaluation and more appropriate and rapid treatment of patients with chest pain and other heart attack symptoms, the news release shows. They also evaluate and treat other medical problems and promote a healthier lifestyle to reduce the risk factors for heart attack.