Cardiac Screening Center lauded for public health service

INDIANAPOLIS – The Cardiac Screening Center at St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers has been selected to receive the Tony and Mary Hulman Health Achievement Award from the Indiana Public Health Foundation, Inc.

The award, presented annually, is for business and industry in the field of Preventive Medicine and Public Health. The center will be recognized along with other recipients of the Indiana’s Premier Health Awards at a ceremony Thursday, Oct. 2, at the downtown Westin Hotel.

“We are very proud and excited to be the recipient of the Tony and Mary Hulman Health Achievement Award in the field of Preventive Medicine and Public Health,” said screening coordinator Scott Roberts. “Our Cardiac Screening Center has motivated many individuals to make lifestyle modifications to reduce their chances of experiencing cardiac and vascular disease.”

The Cardiac Screening Center, a component of the St. Francis Heart Center, offers a variety of low-cost screening packages to the public, all of which are designed to assess a patient’s risk for heart and vascular disease.

The center’s selection for the award marks the second year in a row that a St. Francis entity has received the Preventive Medicine and Public Health Award. In 2007, the Heart Center’s Emergency Heart Attack Response Team (EHART) was recognized for implementing a protocol that more effectively treats heart attack patients.

Led by Umesh Khot, M.D., a cardiologist with the St. Francis Heart Center and Indiana Heart Physicians, EHART has reduced the time until patients receive lifesaving care after coming to the emergency department with chest pain. Compared to the traditional approaches patients arrive at the cardiac catheterization lab sooner, have less heart damage and shorter hospital stays. In addition, the EHART protocol also reduced the costs of care.

The American Heart Association and the federal government recommend a door-to-balloon time of 90 minutes or less. At St. Francis, EHART has reduced the average door-to-balloon time to just 58 minutes. EHART is so effective that more than 242 hospitals in the United States and around the world have asked St. Francis to share the protocol.
More information about services offered at the Cardiac Screening Center is at www.stfrancishospitals.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=118.

Details about the Hulman Health Achievement Awards can be found at www.bagsandmorebypam.com.