Heart Failure Program At St. Vincent's HealthCare
Heart failure accounts for more than 1 million hospitalizations in the United States every year. In 2010, St. Vincent's Medical Center Riverside and St. Vincent's Medical Center Southside, formerly St. Luke's Hospital, began a new comprehensive heart failure program, demonstrating the system's commitment to exceptional cardiac care.
In addition to continued positive outcomes for our patients, the goal of the program is to achieve a Bronze Award from the American Heart Association and for both hospitals to be Joint Commission Certified in Heart Failure.
The program includes three main components:
- Nurse and staff education
- Patient education, including Heart Huddle classes for patients and families
- Streamlining patient flow to ensure the quickest response possible when patients arrive at the hospital
The Chest Pain Center at St. Vincent's Medical Center Riverside
St. Vincent's Medical Center Riverside is accredited as a Cycle II Chest Pain Center with Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI). This means our patient care procedures exceed the rigid standards set by the national Society of Chest Pain Centers and Providers.
St. Vincent's approach to patient management allows physicians to reduce time to treatment during the critical early stages of a heart attack when treatments are most effective and to monitor patients better when it is not clear whether they are having a coronary event. Such observation helps ensure that a patient is neither sent home too early nor admitted needlessly.
Heart Care - Fast
More than 5 million Americans visit hospitals each year with chest pain. When a heart attack occurs, time is muscle. With every minute that passes, the chances of a full recovery decrease.
The Door to Balloon (D2B) program, introduced by the American College of Cardiology, encourages hospitals to adopt six evidence-based strategies designed to reduce the time interval between arrival at the hospital and the opening of a blocked artery with an angioplasty balloon.
St. Vincent's HealthCare is proud to be participating in the door-to-balloon program. In fact, our average door-to-balloon time is faster than the national average of 90 minutes. Simply put, we're committed to saving lives.
