MountainStar Facilities Accredited for Chest Pain Care

Five MountainStar hospitals and its satellite emergency department are the first facilities in Utah to be named accredited chest pain centers by the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care.

St. Mark’s Hospital, Lone Peak Emergency Center, Lakeview Hospital, Ogden Regional Medical Center, Brigham City Community Hospital and Timpanogos Regional Hospital were each awarded the accreditation. The facilities each met or exceeded a set of stringent criteria and underwent an onsite review in January by a team of SPCP’s accreditation review specialists who evaluated their care of patients with chest pain and other heart attack symptoms..

“Each facility proactively engaged in a rigorous standardization of their cardiac care processes,” said Scott Williams, MountainStar Healthcare’s chief medical officer. “As a result, the treatment received at these hospitals by every patient with heart attack symptoms is based on the most current research and best clinical practices. Simply put, this means we’re able to save more lives.”

The most effective and potentially life-saving time to treat heart attacks is during the critical early stages. By using a protocol-driven and systematic approach, physicians and support staff at six MountainStar Chest Pain Centers reduce the time it takes to accurately assess, diagnose and treat a patient who is potentially experiencing a coronary event.

The facilities were evaluated on several criteria, including reducing the time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis and treatment, treating patients more quickly during the critical time window, monitoring patients when it is not certain that they are having a heart attack, and effectively treating low-risk patients with no assignable cause for their symptoms.

Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in the United States, with 600,000 people dying annually of heart disease. More than five million Americans visit hospitals each year with chest pain.

“The average patient arrives in the emergency department more than two hours after the onset of symptoms,” explains Michelle Pola, chest pain and stroke coordinator at St. Mark’s Hospital. “They don’t realize that the sooner a heart attack is treated, the less damage will be done to their heart and they will have a better outcome. Too many people wait too long before calling 911 when they think they might be having a heart attack.”