MCSA earns accreditation from Society of Chest Pain Centers

By: John Worthen
Published: 11/13/2009

The Medical Center of South Arkansas in El Dorado has earned an accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers, hospital officials announced this week, making the institution one of just two in the state to receive this designation. The Arkansas Heart Hospital in Little Rock is also accredited by the SCPC.

Rakesh K. Sharma, medical director for the Chest Pain Center at MCSA, said in a news release that he is “thankful and proud of the hospital team and emergency medical services for developing the protocols necessary to deliver quality cardiac care for managing patients with chest pain and heart attack.”

Other hospital officials concur that the MCSA’s “team approach” to cardiac care allowed the accreditation to be possible.

“Everyone worked together, and worked very hard for this,” said Rosanne Hudoba, chief quality officer at MCSA. “It took good planning, hard work and a lot of passion to pull this off. We have to give credit to everyone, from our cardiologists to our phone operators. Everyone plays a key role here.”

Before issuing an accreditation, the SCPC studies a variety of areas at a heart care facility, including what’s known as “door to balloon time.”

As Hudoba explained, this is the amount of time it takes “from the point when we get the emergency call to the time we begin treatment on them.”

The national window for successful treatment of heart attack patients is 90 minutes, Hudoba said. MCSA is averaging 62 minutes.

Other criteria carefully studied includes knowledge of practicing physicians at the facility, available equipment and the overall quality of care patients receive.

MCSA officials also reported this week the hospital’s first quarter 2009 ranking from the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care. The hospital ranked second among 45 state-wide acute care hospitals that fall under Medicare’s Prospective Payment System.

A PPS is a method of reimbursement in which Medicare payment is made based on a predetermined, fixed amount.

The rankings are based on criteria set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid as part of the Appropriate Care Measure Report.

According to the AFMC, these reports on Medicare quality measures relate to heart failure, pneumonia, heart attacks and surgical care infection prevention.

The hospital secured a first place ranking for the second quarter of 2008 by the AFMC. The second place ranking comes despite the hospital improving its AFMC compliance points by 3 percent, said Hudoba.

The MCSA also “met or exceeded national core measures,” Hudoba said.

“We are committed to bringing our patients a level of quality care that they would expect to find at any other hospital in the nation. We want them to know that they can receive quality medical care right here in South Arkansas.”