The Society of Chest Pain Centers has granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to Houston Northwest Medical Center. Houston Northwest Medical Center is one of seven Accredited Chest Pain Centers with PCI in the city of Houston.

"Chest Pain Accreditation is validation of the high-quality care provided to our cardiac patients," says Drew Kahn, chief executive officer. "It was made possible through the hard work and dedication of our emergency physicians, cardiologists, nurses and other members of the Chest Pain Center team."

"The team at Houston Northwest has improved processes designed to transport patients from the emergency department to the Cath Lab quicker and has taken other early intervention steps that are making a difference," added Kahn.

Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in the United States, with 600,000 dying annually of heart disease. The goal of the Society of Chest Pain Centers is to significantly reduce the mortality rate of these patients by teaching the public to recognize and react to the early symptoms of a possible heart attack, reduce the time that it takes to receive treatment, and increase the accuracy and effectiveness of treatment.

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.

The Society’s accreditation process insures centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures in acute cardiac medicine. The Chest Pain Center at Houston Northwest Medical Center has demonstrated 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.

Key areas in which a Chest Pain Center must demonstrate expertise include:

- 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
- Having a functional design that promotes optimal patient care
- Ensuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training
- Maintaining organizational structure and commitment
- Continually seeking to improve processes and procedures
- Supporting community outreach programs that educate the public to promptly seek medical care if they display symptoms of a possible heart attack