MDNews - South Central Pennsylvania

"WE S E T H I G H STANDARDS for ourselves and for our patients," Dr. Safi says. "We don't do that for awards. We do that because your mom, dad, neighbors and friends deserve high-quality heart care close to home." In 2012 and 2013, the hospital received the Platinum Performance Achievement Award from American College of Cardiology (ACC) Foundation's National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) ACTION Registry– Get with the Guidelines (GWTG) and the American Heart Association's (AHA) Mission: Lifeline Gold Performance Achievement Award. "The awards recognize our teamwork and commitment to success in using high standards of care for our patients," Dr. Safi says. "Having high standards is important when time equals heart muscle. There is no time to delay, no room for error when dealing with the heart." Time Equals Heart Muscle The AHA and the ACC recommend 90 minutes as the standard time to open a blocked artery after the patient arrives at the hospital. "We average about half of that time," Dr. Safi says. "We have reviewed our pro- cesses, formed teams and continue to work every day with all of the departments in the hospital to ensure that we are quick and deliberate every single time — because that is what our patients need us to be." Patients at Chambersburg Hospital are receiving this care with advanced equipment in a new Heart Care Suite. High Tech, High Touch Completed in 2012, Chambersburg Hospital's $100 million building project provides patients with large private rooms and an expanded Heart Care Suite with three cardiac catheterization labs and 12 patient bays. Inside the suite, the cardiologists save lives by placing a thin, flexible tube into a blood vessel so it can be threaded to the heart. "We perform more than 1,400 of these procedures every year," Dr. Safi says. The equipment in the new cath labs is Close to Home in Franklin County CHAMBERSBURG HOSPITAL'S CARDIOLOGY SERVICES HAVE RECEIVED SEVERAL NATIONAL AWARDS, BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT DRIVES THIS TEAM, SAYS ARSHAD SAFI, MD, INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGIST WITH SUMMIT CARDIOLOGY. Award-Winning Heart Care Alexander Kuhn, Vice President of the American Heart Association's Mission: Lifeline program (second from right) presented Chambersburg Hospital's cardiology program with the AHA Mission: Lifeline Gold Award. Attending the award presentation were several members of the cardiology and emergency staff, as well as (from left) Arshad Safi, MD, interventional cardiologist; David Ebbitt, MD, emergency medicine; Kuhn; and Aylmer Tang, MD, interventional cardiologist. Chambersburg Hospital's King Street Addition was designed with patients in mind, offering private patient rooms and an expanded Heart Care Suite. the most advanced technology available. The hospital has two GE Innova IGS 520 systems, which use X-ray technology to help doctors guide the catheter. The systems were among only 10 in the country when they were installed. Nursing workspace was also expanded during the building project. "In the past, our team was with the patient during their procedure but then had to hand off to a post-procedure care team on a dif- ferent floor of the hospital," Dr. Safi says. "Even though this team was equally skilled, our trained heart care nurses can now be with our patients from pre-cath to post-cath through discharge. We find this constant contact makes for better patient care." Chambersburg Hospital is part of the Summit Health network, which also offers many other services to help heart care patients thrive. "It's important that our community and our fellow providers know that qualified, award-winning heart care is available in Franklin County, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," Dr. Safi says. For more information about cardiology services available in Franklin County, visit www.SummitHealth.org/heart. ■ +++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++ + +++ + +++++++++++++++++++++++++ ❮ PARTNERS IN CARE M D N E W S . CO M ■ MD NEWS South Central Pennsylvania | 1 9

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