More than five million Americans visit hospital emergency rooms every year for chest pain. Some causes are mild and inconvenient while others are serious and potentially life threatening. 

 

Henry Low Heart's Chest Pain Center is a short-stay evaluation center where highly trained staff in cardiac care provides thorough assessment, diagnosis and treatment to patients experiencing unexplained chest pain and heart attack symptoms. 

 

The Chest Pain Center screens for the entire spectrum of coronary heart disease -- heart attack, cardiac ischemia, latent coronary disease and risk factors. Patients who have an urgent cardiac status are triaged to the appropriate cardiac unit. Lower risk patients whose status is unclear are admitted to the Chest Pain Center for close observation, while those whose chest pain is a non-cardiac emergency are safely discharged. The goal is to minimize the time it takes to treat a patient experiencing a potential cardiac emergency.

 

Some paramedics can now administer an electrocardiogram when arriving at the site of the patient. These results are immediately and securely transmitted to the Chest Pain Center. If a patient is suffering from a severe heart attack, a system-wide response will begin at the Hospital prior to the patient’s arrival, ensuring the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory is briefed on and prepared for the patient’s emergency. Emergency cardiac treatment will begin instantly when the patient arrives at the hospital.

 

Hartford Hospital’s Chest Pain Center is the first center in North Central Connecticut to be accredited by the Society of Chest Pain Centers and is only one of two existing centers in the state. Accreditation certifies patients will receive the most timely, highest standard quality of care.