Frankfort Regional Medical Center

Certified Help for Hearts Am I Having a Heart Attack? When blood flow in the heart is blocked, you are having a heart attack. Symptoms of a heart attack include: • Chest pain, pressure or fullness • Nausea, indigestion or vomiting • Neck, jaw, left arm or shoulder pain • Shortness of breath • Cold sweats or feeling light-headed Call 911 if you or a loved one experiences any of these symptoms. Mark Sloan, MD Medical Director Karen Wooldridge, MA, BSN, RN Assistant Chief Nursing Officer Frankfort Regional Medical Center is now a fully accredited Chest Pain Center. Â Learn more about Chest Pain Center accreditation at FrankfortRegional.com. An accredited Chest Pain Center with Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Accreditation is certified with the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care. Accredited centers meet national guidelines and benchmarks for providing the highest level of care, including: •Integrated Emergency Department with local emergency response teams •Quick assessment, diagnosis and treatment of patients •Effective treatment of patients at low risk for coronary disease •An organized and streamlined care process •Continual assessment and improvement of processes and procedures One of the most important elements of heart attack care is the time between the 911 call and when treatment begins. NO SMALL FEAT "It took a whole team about eleven months to prepare and complete the accreditation," says Karen Wooldridge, MA, BSN, RN, Assistant Chief Nursing Officer at Frankfort. "We worked with emergency medical services and Emergency Department staff to make sure the flow of a patient from emergency care to the catheterization lab is flawless. From the beginning, we want to restore blood flow as quickly as possible." Once in the cath lab, patients can get PCI, a minimally invasive technique that restores blood flow in the heart quickly. Rather than waiting to travel to a larger hospital to have this procedure, patients having a heart attack can stay in their community—and be treated in a more timely fashion. "Every minute during a heart attack can cause more muscle damage, so it's a big deal to wait an additional thirty minutes to travel," says Mark Sloan, MD, Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Frankfort. "In the long run, it can translate to recovering well from a heart attack versus having heart failure or other serious complications." AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION In addition to high levels of care when you're having a heart attack, an accredited Chest Pain Center is evaluated based on how well it informs the community about heart attack prevention and detection. "We have worked hard at community outreach, both with providers, employees and patients," says Wooldridge. "We met with community physicians, including OB-GYNs and surgeons, to give them information about heart attack symptoms and have been intentional about getting our providers engaged in heart attack prevention." 3

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