Jan. 17 — Taking care of hearts in East Pierce County

Puyallup’s Good Samaritan Hospital takes measures to improve its fight against heart disease

Chris Albert / of the Herald

Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup took its first step toward chest pain certification with the opening of its Cardiac Specialty Unit.

The 18 bed unit, which opened Jan. 14, will focus on providing immediate diagnosis, treatment and education for chest pain related symptoms.

To get chest pain certification, the hospital must demonstrate its ability to provide that kind of care. The hospital should find out if they achieve that goal by August, said Kathleen Clary, director of the Critical Care Department and Dialysis Services at the hospital.

Instead of being treated in the hospital’s emergency room patients will be sent to the cardiac unit.

It will free up space in the emergency department and provide better care for chest pain patients, Clary said. The streamline care will provide the right care in a better time frame, she said.

“We call it improving throughput,” Clary said, of streamlining service. “It’s just better for the patients.”

The one thing the unit will not be doing is surgery, Clary said.

“But we can do everything else here,” she said, including multiple types of testing, non-surgical treatment and education.

The centralized location will allow for not only better care but better customer service for families, she said.

Certification runs the whole gambit of cardiovascular disease from chest pain to a full cardiac arrest and is very difficult to get, she said. Tacoma General is one of the few hospitals in the area with such a certification.

“It’s a big deal and I think it’s worth it,” McCarren said.

Patients shouldn’t have to go to Tacoma or Seattle for that care, she said.

“The medicine that happens in Seattle happens here too,” she said. “It’s part of being responsive to the community.”

Cardiovascular disease affects a lot of people in East Pierce County and proper care is needed, McCarren said.

The new unit is just one of many expansion projects the hospital will be undergoing in the next few years.

“This is where the growth is,” said Christi McCarren, MultiCare Administrator for Cardiovascular Services. “It’s important that Good Sam is ready to meet the needs of this community.”

The unit will be staffed with 40 to 45 medical personnel members, with four to five nurses on shift at one time.

Nursing staff has been undergoing training specifically for chest pain related ailments.

“We’ve gone to them (classes) so we know what the patient should expect,” said Alice Anderson, a registered nurse in the unit.

Care doesn’t stop at the hospital — being able to educate people about symptoms, treatment and prevention once they go home is key to recovery, she said.

“So when they get up here they know exactly what’s going on,” Anderson said.

The goal is to educate patients, so they don’t have to return, Clary said.

“We don’t want them back,” she said.

It is the hospitals aspiration to have a three to one ratio of patients to nurses, to improve care and give medical staff more time with each patient.

“So you are more in tune with your patients,” Anderson said.