New to this year's Summit, the Chest Pain Solution Room offered participants of the Chest Pain – MI Registry and Chest Pain Center Accreditation the opportunity to interact with each other in a workshop environment. The session encouraged attendees to discuss best practices, share ideas and solutions in response to case studies, and address frequently asked questions.

ACC's Chest Pain Center Accreditation is designed to help facilities to establish consistent, high-quality processes for the most efficient and effective acute coronary syndrome (ACS) care. For example, Hackensack Meridian JFK University Medical Center made ACS observation process enhancements resulting in an annual cost savings of more than $700K along with reduced length-of-stay.

As part of the Quality Summit, attendees got a sneak peek of the updated Chest Pain Center Accreditation program, which provides facilities the opportunity to discover cost savings and improve outcomes with a model that has streamlined mandatory requirements by more than 40%.

In addition to participating in the formal accreditation process, clinicians and facilities can also access ACC's free CardioSmart patient education tools, including infographics illustrating what chest pain may feel like, breaking down when patients should be taking daily aspirin, and highlighting the cardiovascular benefits of vaccination.

ACC's Early Heart Attack Care (EHAC) program is another patient education initiative aimed at increasing public awareness of the signs and symptoms of a heart attack and encouraging early action to save lives.

"Providing EHAC education to the general public helps participants recognize and respond in the event of an emergency," said Amanda McCall, BSN, RN, the cardiovascular accreditation coordinator for AdventHealth Zephyrhills and AdventHealth Dade County. "Promoting awareness to the community can be a key factor in the prevention of heart attacks. Early intervention can truly make all the difference in a person's outcome."

Click here to learn more about the EHAC program.

Click here for CardioSmart's Chest Pain Patient Resources.

Keywords: Cardiology Magazine, ACC Publications