High-Quality Emergency Heart Care
In October 2007, John C. Lincoln Deer Valley Hospital became one of only two hospitals in Arizona to receive accreditation as a Chest Pain Center with PCI (percutaneous cardiac intervention) from the international Society of Chest Pain Centers.
Research shows that heart attack patients at an accredited Chest Pain Center are more likely to have better care, survive, recover and go home quickly.
Our focus on advanced care for heart patients ensures we consistently perform better than the 90-minute "door-to-balloon" national standard. According to this window of time, patients who enter the emergency room with heart attack symptoms should be given angioplasty, when appropriate, within 90 minutes of arrival. At Deer Valley, we routinely exceed this standard.
About the Chest Pain Center
The focus of the Chest Pain Center is re-establishing coronary blood flow to patients, as quickly and safely as possible. In emergency heart care, "time is muscle." If heart attack symptoms are caused by a blockage in the heart's arteries, the faster we can unblock the artery and restore circulation to the affected heart muscle, the better the chances are for recovery.
How we achieve results depends on collaboration and commitment:
- We work closely with pre-hospital personnel (ambulance and helicopter paramedics, as well as EMTs), so that evaluation and treatment starts in the field for patients who call 9-1-1 because of chest pain.
- Our clinical team is specially trained in emergency heart care. Their profound knowledge ensures that we continue to provide high-quality patient care in the Progressive Cardiac Care Unit.
- Our equipment and clinical procedures are state of the art. We've scrutinized every step in patient care to ensure each team member recognizes the symptoms of a heart attack—which can be subtle in some cases—and the protocols for accurately diagnosing and treating potential heart attack patients.