The Chest Pain Center at Middle Tennessee Medical Center here in Murfreesboro, along with all others in the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network, have been recognized as a finalist in the 20th Annual Monroe E. Trout Premier Cares Award.
The award honors exemplary efforts by not-for-profit organizations to improve access to health care for the underserved. As one of only six organizations in the nation to be named a finalist, the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network was recognized for its work mitigating the rates of heart disease and cardiac related deaths within rural populations and awarded $24,000.
St. Thomas Network Executive Director Renee Curtis said, “We’re honored to receive this national recognition and plan to re-invest the $24,000 award into the Chest Pain Network to expand our mobile simulation lab program.”
The program includes an advanced, life-size patient simulator known as ‘Willie B. Well’ that can re-create complex medical conditions. This offers medical personnel an opportunity to test and practice their reactions and skills leading to a high degree of familiarity and confidence.
Curtis noted, "We plan to acquire an actual ambulance that will become a ‘mini emergency room on wheels’ to create an even more realistic training environment for emergency caregivers.”
This effort will virtually eliminate the need for nurses, paramedics and other providers, who are located in rural communities, to travel long distances for crucial training that is unavailable closer to home.
The Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network, which began in 2006, is among the largest accredited chest pain networks in the nation. It aims to provide a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to improving cardiac care across Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. In the past five years, the Chest Pain Network has implemented a standardized protocol for responding to cardiac emergencies across the region. The network has grown to include 18 accredited Chest Pain Centers, including the Chest Pain Center at MTMC, and numerous emergency medical service agencies from 68 counties. They work together to share best practices in treating cardiac patients. The smaller rural facilities and the larger urban tertiary referral centers work together toward one common goal – reducing avoidable delays in the triage, evaluation, treatment and transport of the suspected acute coronary syndrome patient for the best outcome possible.
Middle Tennessee Medical Center and Saint Thomas Health are members of Ascension Health, a Catholic organization that is the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States. For more information, visit www.sths.com.