All Roper St. Francis Emergency Rooms include a chest pain center.

If you think you are having a heart attack fast action could save your life. The Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) recently granted the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center to Roper Hospital's Emergency Room, making it the first accredited Chest Pain Center in the Lowcountry and only the 74th in the country.

Successful treatment of heart attacks is time dependent and must be initiated quickly. This accreditation certifies that our center and staff are totally prepared to care for patients with heart attack symptoms in a rapid, systematic manner.

More than five million people visit hospitals each year with chest pain or other heart attack symptoms. The goal of accreditation is to significantly reduce the mortality rate of these patients by treating them faster during the critical early stages of a heart attack, when treatments are most effective. This approach also ensures better monitoring of patients when it is unclear whether they are having a heart attack. The result is that patients are neither sent home too early nor needlessly admitted into the hospital.

Chest Pain Center Features:

• Integrating the emergency department with the local emergency medical system
• Assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients quickly
• Effectively treating patients with low risk for acute coronary syndrome
• A functional design that promotes optimal patient care
• Continually seeking to improve processes and procedures
• Skilled, experienced and caring individuals