Rapides Regional Medical Center Center is certified as the area’s only Chest Pain Center by The Joint Commission. As a chest pain center, the goal is to significantly reduce the mortality rate of patients with chest pain by teaching the public to recognize and react to early symptoms of a possible heart attack, reducing the time it takes to receive treatment and increasing accuracy and effectiveness of treatment.
The Chest Pain Center at Rapides Regional Medical Center has demonstrated its expertise and commitment to quality patient care by meeting or exceeding a wide set of stringent criteria and completing on-site evaluations by a review team from The Joint Commission.
Key areas in which a Chest Pain Center must demonstrate expertise include:
- Integrating the emergency department with the local emergency medical system
- Assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients quickly
- Effectively treating patients with low risk for acute coronary syndrome and no assignable cause for their symptoms
- Continually seeking to improve processes and procedures
- Ensuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training
- Maintaining organizational structure and commitment
- Having a functional design that promotes optimal patient care
- Supporting community outreach programs that educate the public to promptly seek medical care if they display symptoms of a possible heart attack
