Quality Improvement for Institutions
www.cvquality.acc.org

Accreditation Services

Questions About Accreditation?

Product Support

Contact Us Form

Sales & Support
Office Hours:

Mailing & Shipping

ACC Accreditation Services
2400 N. St. NW

Washington, DC 20037


Please note address change for ACC Accreditation Services


Advertisement

Features and Benefits of Accreditation

Chest Pain Center Accredited hospitals have achieved a higher level of expertise when dealing with patients who arrive with symptoms of a heart attack. Accreditation improves the clinical processes for the early assessment, diagnosis and treatment within facilities.

Our process improvement methodology leads to...

  • More efficient and effective evaluation
  • Rapid treatment of patients with chest pain and other heart attack symptoms
  • Better educated healthcare professionals and a more well informed community

Chest Pain Center Accreditation helps:

  • Reduce variations of care
  • Lower length of stay (LOS)
  • Sustain consistent process improvement
  • Decrease readmissions
  • Maximize reimbursements

A Participant's Perspective

Global Quality Instituto Modelo de Cardiologia Watch Now!



Presentation Title:  Global Quality Solutions
Presenter: Dr. Javier A Sala Mercado, Instituto Modelo de Cardiologia, Cardoba, Argentina

What’s Covered: In this brief presentation Dr. Javier A Sala Mercado discusses the importance of identification of the Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) portal of entry, how the facility achieved sustainability in many critical metrics for their AMI patients, and the facility's strengthened relationship with Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
Note: This video is an excerpt of a presentation delivered by Dr. Mercado at ACC Quality Summit 2021.


You are not alone on your path to Chest Pain Center Accreditation. Partnering with your care team is the ACC, the professional home for members of the CV care team. Our experienced staff of accreditation review specialists have helped hundreds of hospitals become accredited Chest Pain Centers. Using measures aligned with the latest ACC/AHA Guidelines — CPC provides actionable data to support more informed clinical decisions. Through the Accreditation tool you can focus on:

  • Calculated Measures for the care of LOW-RISK, NSTE-ACS, STEMI and Resuscitation
  • Key performance metrics to track quality of care and identify opportunities for improvement
  • Operational measures associated with patient outcomes and organizational performance
  • Greater collaboration and partnership between the entire multidisciplinary CV care team

Easing Data Collection with NCDR Chest Pain - MI Registry and CPC

Facilities that actively participate in NCDR Chest Pain - MI Registry can utilize the registry as a data source for CPC. This alleviates the need to input much of the STEMI and NSTEMI population reporting requirements into the CPC Accreditation Conformance Database (ACD), the repository for data associated with tracking your quality measures.

Value-Added Services for CPC:

  • Assigned Accreditation Review Specialist for coaching and guidance
  • Accreditation Training
  • Informational Webinars (live and on-demand formats)

ACC's Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Partner in Care Recognition highlights EMS agencies that have a solid partnership with a Chest Pain Center (CPC) Accredited or Certified facility. Participating facilities build robust, ongoing relationships with their local and regional EMS partners to ensure the highest level of care for patients who may be experiencing a heart attack.


EMS Partner in Care Recognition is the opportunity to showcase the valuable collaboration between the hospital and EMS to the community and patients, showing that, as a team, you are delivering the best practice in patient care.

Eligibility Requirements

  • The EMS agency must be in partnership with facilities applying for CPC Accreditation or Certification.
  • The facility must provide documentation to the Pre-Hospital Care Essential Component requirements, including a charter with signatures between medical directors from the hospital and EMS, quarterly meeting minutes, and attendance records demonstrating a tangible relationship with mutual goals, metric sharing, and collaboration.

Process for Achieving EMS Partner in Care Recognition

  • The hospital or facility collaborates with the EMS agency to complete the EMS Partner in Care application , which will be sent to the Customer Care Manager and the Accreditation Clinical Product Manager for review.
  • The Accreditation Clinical Product Manager validates the EMS agency has an active ongoing collaboration with the facility through documentation the facility has uploaded to support the "Pre-Hospital Care" Essential Components.
  • Once the recognition has been awarded, a Customer Care representative will notify the facility and EMS agency of the approved recognition.
  • Through this recognition, EMS receives a unique Partner in Care seal that corresponds to the facility Chest Pain Center Accreditation or Certification seal. The facility and EMS will be given graphics to highlight their participation.

EMS pre-hospital care and treatment directly impact patient outcomes by preparing patients for the ED or Cath Lab. With EMS Partner in Care, the ACC recognizes the crucial role of EMS in initiating care and getting the patient to the right hospital at the right time to impact the overall patient outcome.

Process improvement leads to quality improvement with greater efficiencies across the continuum of care, and more timely and accurate diagnosis and guideline-driven treatment of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) patients.

The assigned Accreditation Review Specialist (ARS) offers ongoing support, assessment and review, and will help establish a future-focused strategic plan to lower the cost of care while improving the quality of care.

Chest Pain Center (CPC) Accreditation uses the most up-to-date performance measures and guidelines to:

  • Ensure appropriate risk stratification for placement of patients based on clinical presentation, diagnostics, and treatments
  • Reduce Door-to-Reperfusion (D2R) times (including thrombolytics and Primary PCI)
  • Align each process to latest ACC/AHA protocols
  • Decrease time and cost by developing an appropriate non-invasive ischemia testing strategy
  • Improve relationships with Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and integrate EMS into the patient care process
  • Increase community awareness of ACS symptoms and early access to care
  • Employ clinical pathways and treatment strategies across all transitions of care
  • Streamline cross-department processes and enhance cardiovascular (CV) team collaboration
  • Identify gaps, measure results, and revise current processes to meet goals

To help reach your Accreditation and Quality Improvement objectives, process improvement efforts are organized across nine Essential Components (EC):

Essential Components of CPC Accreditation
  • Governance: Establish a multi-disciplinary committee with executive support to provide orchestration of cardiac program operations, clinical oversight, and provide education to meet the needs of providers and staff.
  • Quality: Establish a plan to integrate continuous improvement in all aspects of care, including quality monitoring and evaluation of processes, in the care of the patient.
  • Community Outreach: Increase community awareness of heart attack signs and symptoms, including an Early Heart Attack Care (EHAC) program. Develop educational programs through partnerships with EMS, local health care providers, employers, and the community-at-large to increase public awareness of the value for early patient engagement for heart attack care and hands-only Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).
  • Pre-Hospital Care: Build a solid partnership with EMS to integrate first point-of-care processes with facility care.
  • ACS Patient Care Management: Develop an effective strategy for the management of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) patients, including an ischemia-guided strategy. Protocols and order sets designed to reflect current ACC/AHA guidelines. Hardwire immediate assessment and stabilization protocols to evaluate, risk stratify, and manage patients who are either at risk of or are having an acute occlusive event. Solidify the criteria and observation pathway for those patients needing additional diagnostic testing.
  • Observation Management: Develop an effective strategy for ACS patients placed in Observation Status.
  • Transitions of Care: Establish care coordination at discharge, including early follow-up care and patient/family education, to prevent unnecessary and costly re-admissions.
  • Clinical Quality: Measure and evaluate operational performance and adherence to evidence-based guidelines, proven to optimize the quality of care.
  • Designation: Pinpoint the requirements for each of the three types of CPC designations, each based upon a facility's treatment strategy and capabilities.

The comprehensive, sustainable approach to process and care improvement is your blueprint for a successful Accreditation and optimal long-term value. By ensuring all personnel and departments speak the same language and use the most up-to-date protocols and policies, you enhance efficiencies and eliminate variations in patient care. Consequently, you're able to optimize patient outcomes and financial performance. CPC Accreditation assists with the following:

  • Reduce the liability of missed heart attacks through a consistent approach to risk stratification of the Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) patient
  • Improve patient throughput and volumes
  • Reduce costly admissions
  • Establish more appropriate Lengths of Stay (LOS)
  • Enhance patient engagement leading to improved patient satisfaction scores
  • Meet the demands of the ever-changing healthcare market
  • Create operational efficiencies to improve the bottom line
Chart an new course for QI

Temp Styles

American College of Cardiology: 2400 N St. NW, Washington DC 20006