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Ranked first in North Carolina for cardiology by the independent national quality rating firm HealthGrades, Presbyterian Hospital has now received the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center from the Society of Chest Pain Centers.

"This distinction as an Accredited Chest Pain Center is a great honor and a testament to the hard work and dedication of Presbyterian's Cardiovascular Institute and emergency department," said Carl Armato, Presbyterian's president and chief executive officer. "Knowing that heart attacks are the leading cause of death in America, we strive to treat and identify the causes of chest pain as quickly as possible."

Presbyterian Hospital also offers a preventive and rehabilitative component to heart care through the Presbyterian Center for Preventive Cardiology, which opened in 2001 and served as the first dedicated center for preventive cardiology in this region.

"Presbyterian Hospital offers an excellent comprehensive cardiovascular program that is unique in its field," said Kathy Sullivan of the Society's Accreditation Review Team. "From caring for patients on the preventive side with well-presented educational programs to caring for patients with severe heart disease, the hospital offers a well-organized and highly commendable program."

More than five million Americans visit hospitals each year with chest pain. The goal of the Society of Chest Pain Centers is to significantly reduce the mortality rate of these patients by teaching the public to recognize and react to the early symptoms of a possible heart attack, reduce the time that it takes to receive treatment and increases the accuracy and effectiveness of treatment.

The Chest Pain Center at Presbyterian Hospital takes a protocol-driven and systematic approach to patient management that allows physicians to reduce time to treatment during the critical early stages of a heart attack, when treatments are most effective, and to better monitor patients 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 needlessly admitted.

Presbyterian Hospital's Chest Pain 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 Society of Chest Pain Centers. Key areas in which a Chest Pain Center must demonstrate expertise include: