VCU Medical Center Receives Chest Pain Accreditation

By Cheryle Rodriguez

The VCU Medical Center has received Chest Pain Accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers, recognizing the hospital for achieving a higher level of expertise in caring for patients who arrive with symptoms of a heart attack.  

“This accreditation reflects the excellence and quality care heart patients at the VCU Medical Center receive through the coordinated effort of our emergency department and cardiac services professionals,” said Sheldon Retchin, M.D., CEO of the VCU Health System and vice president of VCU Health Sciences.

The Acute Chest Pain Management unit at the VCU Pauley Heart Center is nationally recognized for its diagnosis system that quickly and reliably identifies patients suspected of having acute cardiac disease, according to Kenneth Ellenbogen, M.D., chair of the Division of Cardiology. “The accreditation provides reassurance that we are a hospital you can trust to provide the best possible outcome in heart care.”

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States – approximately 600,000 people die from heart disease each year. Additionally, more than 5 million Americans visit hospitals each year with chest pain.

“People tend to wait when they think they might be having a heart attack, and that’s a mistake,” said Joseph Ornato, M.D., chair of Emergency Medicine.  “The average patient arrives in the emergency department more than two hours after the onset of symptoms, but what they may not realize is that the sooner a heart attack is treated, the less damage to the heart and the better the outcomes for the patient.”