INDIANAPOLIS – St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana is the first in the state to earn the Disease-Specific Care Certification for Heart Failure from The Joint Commission, the nation’s premier healthcare accreditation entity.
The Joint Commission’s Disease-Specific Care Certification Program evaluates clinical programs and awards accreditation to health care organizations that demonstrate compliance with national standards and safety goals, evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, and performance measurement and improvement activities.
“It is truly an honor to be the only health provider in Indiana to receive this heart failure accreditation from such a reputable organization,” said Mary Norine Walsh, MD, medical director of Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation at the St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana. “Our ongoing commitment to delivering the best outcomes, compliance with rigorous standards and continuous process improvement has benefited heart failure patients across the state.”
St.Vincent began the Disease-Specific Care Certification process in 2005 when it opened Indiana’s first multidisciplinary Heart Failure Unit.
“The process to gain certification took hard work and dedication from our comprehensive team of medical and nursing professionals,” said Mary Fischer, cardiovascular clinical nurse specialist at the St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana. “Our efforts have been focused on the care of patients that is based on national guidelines. A primary goal has been education of patients and their families. Our achievement of heart failure accreditation confirms that patients receive the highest level of care at St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana.”
The multidisciplinary team of clinical professionals at the St.Vincent Heart Failure Center provides evidence-based care for patients and works to improve their quality of life. At the 20-bed Heart Failure Center, patients receive individualized attention from specially-trained staff, and are taught important skills for self care to decrease the chance that they will be hospitalized in the future.
Since the opening of the St.Vincent Heart Failure Center, cardiologists and cardiac nurses have treated approximately 3,000 patients.
For four consecutive years, the St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana has been ranked the number one provider of overall cardiac care, cardiology, cardiac surgery and coronary interventions in Indiana by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings company. The dedicated heart facility is also one of only eight hospitals in the nation to be ranked number one in its respective state for the four heart categories.
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About St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana
St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana (SVHCI) was the first free-standing heart hospital in the Indianapolis metro area when it opened December of 2002, and is a joint venture between St.Vincent Health and the physicians and surgeons of The Care Group, LLC and CorVasc MD's P.C. In addition to a state-of-the-art medical and surgical 120-bed hospital, SVHCI is home to the $99 Heart Scan of Indiana, 24/7 Heart Emergency Unit, which has received a five-star rating from HealthGrades for 2005, 2006, 2007,2008 and 2009, the A-Fib Center of Excellence, the Congestive Heart Failure Center of Excellence, the Indiana Heart Attack Network and the Sleep Center of Indiana. SVHCI is the only hospital in Indiana to be named by HealthGrades as the best heart care in Indiana four years in a row and in the top 5% of all hospitals in the U.S. for overall cardiac services for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. It is also a Thomson/Solucient Top 100 Hospital for Cardiovascular Services. SVHCI specializes in interventional cardiology, cardiac catheterization, cardiac surgery, vascular medicine, thoracic procedures and transplants. SVHCI is also an Accredited Chest Pain Center.
