Nashville, TN — The Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network was recently recognized as a national finalist for the 20th annual Monroe E. Trout Premier Cares Award.

Presented by the Premier healthcare alliance and its member hospitals, the award honors exemplary efforts by not-for-profit organizations to improve access to health care for the underserved. As one of only six organizations in the nation to be named a finalist, the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network was recognized for its work mitigating the rates of heart disease and cardiac related deaths within rural populations and awarded $24,000.

“We’re honored to receive this national recognition and plan to re-invest the $24,000 award into the Chest Pain Network to expand our mobile simulation lab program,” said Ranee Curtis, executive director for the Saint Thomas Network. “The program includes an advanced, life-size patient simulator known as ‘Willie B. Well’ that can re-create complex medical conditions. This offers medical personnel an opportunity to test and practice their reactions and skills leading to a high degree of familiarity and confidence. We plan to acquire an actual ambulance that will become a ‘mini emergency room on wheels’ to create an even more realistic training environment for emergency caregivers.”

This effort will virtually eliminate the need for nurses, paramedics and other providers, who are located in rural communities, to travel long distances for crucial training that is unavailable closer to home.

The Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network, which began in 2006, is among the largest accredited chest pain networks in the nation. It aims to provide a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to improving cardiac care across Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. In the past five years, the Chest Pain Network has implemented a standardized protocol for responding to cardiac emergencies across the region. The network has grown to include 18 accredited Chest Pain Centers and numerous emergency medical service agencies from 68 counties. They work together to share best practices in treating cardiac patients. The smaller rural facilities and the larger urban tertiary referral centers work together toward one common goal – reducing avoidable delays in the triage, evaluation, treatment and transport of the suspected acute coronary syndrome patient for the best outcome possible.

The network and its member hospitals’ service area includes 1.25 million people with more than 15,700 patients from 1,054 zip codes in the Saint Thomas Acute Coronary Syndrome Data Registry. Committed to the education of the citizens of rural communities, the network has trained more than 450 EMS personnel, 900 nurses and 1,500 physicians on the triage, treatment and transfer of cardiac and stroke patients. More than 75 community and inter-facility drills have been organized and participated in throughout the Middle Tennessee area in an effort to reduce treatment delays in these underserved communities. Hickman Community Hospital was the first critical access hospital to become an accredited Chest Pain Center

“Our program is unique because we collaborate with hospitals that are not part of our own health system and in rural communities where we can bring our protocols to them. And, our platform is something that others can learn from and replicate in other areas of the country,” said Curtis.

Representatives from the Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network were presented with the cash award during Premier’s annual Governance Education Conference, which took place in Miami, Jan. 30-Feb. 1.

“Premier’s mission is to improve the health of the communities we serve,” said Susan DeVore, Premier’s president and CEO. “The Saint Thomas Chest Pain Network exemplifies this with the extraordinary work they are doing to make a positive impact on the lives of the people they serve. We congratulate them on this well-deserved award.”

A panel of national health care leaders selected six finalists, which all received cash awards for use in further improving their programs, and one winner from among them for the top award. This year’s Cares Award winner is AtlantiCare Special Care Center in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., which provides high-quality, innovative primary care to chronically ill patients.

The Cares Award program spotlights these community-based health care initiatives and helps other organizations learn to replicate these best practice programs by featuring information about them on the Cares Award Web site.