Chest Pain Center

What is a Chest Pain Center?

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women and chest pain is one of the most common reasons people visit the Emergency Department. This is why Galichia Heart Hospital created a Chest Pain Center within our Emergency Department. The Society of Chest Pain Centers recently completed an onsite review of the Galichia Heart Hospital process when dealing with chest pain patients. They realized that we not only met but exceeded their stringent standards and awarded Galichia Heart Hospital with accreditation as a Chest Pain Center, the only one in Wichita.

What does this mean to you?

If you, a family member, or friend is experiencing chest pain or other heart attack symptoms an immediate, accurate medical evaluation will be conducted by emergency physicians, cardiologists and staff. With faster diagnosis and rapid cardiac intervention we can help prevent or even reverse muscle damage to your heart. As an accredited Chest Pain Center you can be confident that we have the right team and equipment available day and night to stop and treat a heart attack. Out staff of professionals can quickly identify those who need emergent cardiac intervention, preventing further muscle damage to the heart.

Why a Chest Pain Center?

Hospitals accredited by the Society of Chest Pain Centers have been shown to perform better in the heart attack core measures established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as compared to non-accredited hospitals according to a national study by Michael Ross, MD of Emory University.

For those patients requiring emergent treatment in one of our state of the art cath labs our door to balloon time of 68 minutes far exceeds the Society of Chest Pain Centers requirement of 90 minutes.

Patients not requiring emergent treatment can be monitored for up to 24 hours with admission to the hospital. During this time further testing (blood work, EKG’s and stress test) are completed. After further testing is completed the patient is either admitted to the hospital or sent home reassured they did not have a heart attack. Patients will also be given a two week follow up appointment with a cardiologist.

The bottom line

Galichia Heart Hospital is staffed by highly skilled professionals who love giving great care and have undergone a strenuous accreditation process for you. Rest assured that if you, a family member, or friend arrive complaining of chest pain you will be given quick, accurate, appropriate and personal care.

Know the warning signs of a heart attack. Call 911.

• Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that last more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.
• Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
• Short of breath. Difficulty breathing with or without chest discomfort.
• Other signs. May include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.
• Women. Along with chest pain or discomfort women are more likely that men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

IF IN DOUBT, GET CHECKED OUT