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Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network Expands Beyond Tennessee

Posted on: Thursday, 3 July 2008, 12:00 CDT

Saint Thomas Health Services has built the largest network of freestanding, affiliated chest pain centers in the nation, and now it is expanding the services of the network into southern Kentucky, officials announced today.

The Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network is a division of Saint Thomas Health Services that coordinates with local emergency medical services (EMS) and hospital providers to offer a complete range of cardiac care services to populations at risk for heart-related problems. Currently, the Chest Pain Network includes eleven hospitals accredited by the Society of Chest Pain, including the first hospital in the country to receive certification as a Medicare Critical Access Hospital (CAH).

"At Saint Thomas Health Services, we have the ability and the expertise to extend our exceptional heart care practices beyond our hospitals' doors and into communities in three states," said Jim Houser, president and CEO of Saint Thomas Health Services. "The Chest Pain Center Network allows us to quickly provide the highest level of heart care in close range of those most in need of life-saving procedures."

The Society of Chest Pain accredits centers based upon a variety of rigorous criteria, including clinical outcome statistics and comparisons nationwide. In 2007 alone, facilities in the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Center Network saw a number of significant improvements in their clinical outcomes. For example:

-- Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. reduced their door-to-balloon time from 84 minutes in January 2007 to 69 minutes in January 2008.

-- Crockett Hospital in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. reduced their door to EKG time from 21 minutes in April 2007 to 7 minutes in January 2008.

-- Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville, Tenn. reduced their door to EKG time from 18 minutes in December 2006 to 8 minutes in June 2007.

"As the number one heart-care provider in Middle Tennessee, these results reflect our ability to apply best practices, continually make improvements and achieve the most positive outcomes for patients and their families," added Houser.

The goal of the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network is to standardize chest pain protocols among network partner sites, resulting in consistent implementation of evidence-based protocols across the region. A more systematic coordination of existing protocols for treatment, quality data collection, and outcomes monitoring come as a result of this initiative.

"Moving patients, especially those living in remote areas, through the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network quickly and efficiently is critical to saving more lives," said Chris Thomson, Executive Director of the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network. "Through this network, we hope to improve community awareness and emergency access, and work with patients throughout the continuum of cardiac care - from the 9-1-1 call all the way to the patient's discharge after a heart attack."

In order to implement the program, the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Center Network received accreditation from the National Society of Chest Pain Centers. The centers that have achieved Cycle II Society of Chest Pain accreditation and are members of the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network, include:

-- Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tenn.;

-- Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tenn.;

-- Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn.;

-- Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, Tenn.;

-- Livingston Regional Hospital in Livingston, Tenn.;

-- Henry County Medical Center in Paris, Tenn.;

-- Southern Tennessee Medical Center in Winchester, Tenn.;

-- Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville, Tenn.;

-- Hickman Community Hospital in Centerville, Tenn.;

-- Crockett Hospital in Lawrenceburg, Tenn.;

-- Hardin Medical Center in Savannah, Tenn.; and

-- Lincoln Medical Center(1) in Fayetteville, Tenn.;

-- Monroe County Hospital(1) in Tompkinsville, KY.

(1) Pending accreditation

About Saint Thomas Heart

In 2007, Saint Thomas Health Services launched Saint Thomas Heart, a combined entity that utilizes all of Saint Thomas Health Services' heart services under focused leadership. The physicians of Mid-State Cardiology, with offices on the Baptist Hospital campus, and The Heart Group, located on the Saint Thomas Hospital campus, now practice under the umbrella of Saint Thomas Heart. This combined group of 60 heart specialists sees more than 130,000 heart patients in a 69-county region that stretches throughout Middle Tennessee and into southern Kentucky.

About Saint Thomas Health Services

Saint Thomas Health Services is a faith-based ministry with more than 8,000 associates serving Middle Tennessee. Saint Thomas Health Services' regional health system consists of four hospitals - Baptist and Saint Thomas in Nashville, Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro and Hickman Community Hospital in Centerville - and a comprehensive network of affiliated joint ventures in diagnostics, cardiac services and ambulatory surgery as well as medical practices, the Center for Spinal Surgery, clinics and rehabilitation facilities. STHS is a member of Ascension Health, a Catholic organization that is the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States. For more information, visit www.sths.com.

Source: Business Wire

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