Memorial Medical Center STEMI Program

Memorial Medical Center‟s chest pain center (CPC) is working collaboratively to strategize and develop standardize and streamline protocol for patients experiencing an Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). This involves reducing the time to treatment during the critical early stages, when treatments are most effective to significantly reduce heart attack deaths. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), coronary heart disease (CAD) is still the leading cause of death in America. Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a general term that refers to clinical symptoms of coronary artery disease.

As the Chest pain coordinator, I work closely with Patricia Fallow RN, Cath Lab Manager, Dr. Sweeney, ED Co-Medical director, Chest Pain Center (CPC) physician champion whom are all committed to meeting Memorial‟s goal of maintaining STEMI Receiving Center (SRC) designation and achieving CPC accreditation. The emergency department and cardiac catheterization laboratory staff prides themselves on quick triage and treatment of chest pain. Memorial Medical Center‟s CPC and SRC have full administrative support. “We want to demonstrate our dedication to providing quality cardiac care by becoming a Chest Pain Center,” states Hassan Hussain, MD, Medical Director of Cardiology and Kathleen L. Van Slyke, MSN, Director of Critical Care / Cardiac Services.

Patients having a heart attack will go directly to the cardiac cath lab for interventional procedures. Those patients requiring more testing for pain, which may be cardiac in origin, will be admitted for observation and testing in our observation unit opening in January 2011. It will be a short stay and these patients will receive focused care if their condition warrants it and they will be admitted for a longer hospital stay. MMC has a cardiothoracic surgery team readily available to perform advanced procedures including coronary artery bypass graft surgery and heart valve repair and replacement for our STEMI patients.