March 24, 2009 - The Society of Chest Pain Centers’ new Acute Heart Failure Center Accreditation program is aimed at helping healthcare facilities improve patient outcomes and reduce costs through the use of process improvement methods to optimize best practices.
The Society of Chest Pain Centers created the evidence-based recommendations for the management of the observation stay acute heart failure patient. These guidelines form the basis for the Society's Acute Heart Failure Center Accreditation.
The accreditation includes a review of the care of the heart care patient from the onset of their symptoms through discharge from the facility.
Benefits to healthcare facilities include:
- Improved management of the acute heart failure patient
- Reduction in costly admissions and readmissions
- Enhanced reputation for cardiac care
- Market distinction
Benefits to patients include:
- Timely, protocol driven treatment
- Quality care and reduced medical expenses
"In our mission to reduce cardiovascular morbidity, it is a natural progression to first assemble acute heart failure consensus recommendations that facilitate providing cost-effective, high quality care. The next logical step is accreditation based on those best practices," explained Robert Weisenburger Lipetz, MBA, executive director, Society of Chest Pain Centers.
The inaugural AHFC Accreditation workshop will be held on April 29, 2009 at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN, in conjunction with the Twelfth Congress of Chest Pain Centers.
For more information: www.scpcp.org/accreditation