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- Located in Emergency Treatment Center
- Command post for cardiac risk assessment
- Immediate treatment
- No appointment required
- Healthy heart education
- Cardiac rehab counseling
- Stress testing by UI Heart and Vascular Center experts
When chest pain strikes Chest Pain Center: A life-saving ally for people experiencing symptoms of heart disease
Never in their 38 years of marriage did Darrell and Glenda Egli imagine that heart problems would strike them both at virtually the same time.
The couple seemed to enjoy good health as they raised a family and grew corn and soybeans on their 1,600-acre farm near Columbus Junction, Iowa.
But the smooth sailing turned rocky one cold day last winter when 58-year-old Glenda experienced a heart attack. As she prepared to undergo triple bypass surgery at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 60-year-old husband, Darrell, began experiencing his own symptoms: sweating, heart burn, and chest pain.
“With everything else that was going on, I thought it was anxiety-related,” Darrell Egli said. “But as I sat in a waiting room at the hospital, I felt terrible.”
Fortunately, Egli sought immediate attention at a convenient new resource located in the hospital’s Emergency Treatment Center: the Chest Pain Center.
It was the perfect place for Egli to go.
Stephen Scheckel, M.D., an emergency medicine specialist and member of the UI Heart and Vascular Center team at UI Hospitals and Clinics, says the Chest Pain Center provides Iowans experiencing chest pain with more efficient and thorough heart care services.
In the past, he says, patients who came to emergency departments with chest pain were either hospitalized to have a heart attack ruled out, or sent home. Some patients who returned home were at higher risk for complications.
Scheckel says studies have shown that making the diagnosis of a heart attack on the initial presentation to an emergency department can be very difficult.
“Some groups of people, including women, diabetics, and the elderly, can have atypical presentations for heart attacks,” he says. “Sorting out the patients who can safely go home versus those who need to be hospitalized for further evaluation has been a costly and risky diagnostic dilemma.”
The Chest Pain Centers addresses this dilemma by providing an 8- to 12-hour observation period in the Emergency Treatment Center. During this time, a standard set of tests is run to rule out heart attack in the patient with chest pain. Additionally, the patient receives a cardiac risk assessment, healthy heart education, and counseling by a cardiac rehabilitation specialist.
Before discharge, most patients undergo a form of provocative testing (for example, treadmill testing) to further assess their cardiac risk.
Neal Weintraub, M.D., medical director of UI Heart and Vascular Center, noted that heart disease is the leading cause of death in Iowa. “Even so, patients often delay seeking evaluation for chest pain,” he says. “We hope the Chest Pain Center will increase awareness of this disease and prompt more patients to seek evaluation when chest pain develops.”
Scheckel said patients seem to appreciate the convenience that the Chest Pain Center offers.
“It’s easy to locate and parking is conveniently available,” Scheckel says. “Once their evaluation has been completed, most patients will walk out of the Chest Pain Center and return immediately to normal activities, including work, without having to undergo additional testing. Those patients who are determined to have underlying heart disease will promptly receive the cardiac treatment they need.”
Darrell Egli is one such patient. After a period of observation, he underwent a cardiac catheterization procedure in which he received two stents to treat blockages in his heart.
“I felt like the care I got was really excellent and everyone was very friendly,” he says. “It couldn’t have been much better.”
The news was just as good for Glenda. In fact, after successfully undergoing separate heart procedures, the Eglis walked out of the hospital together on the same day.
“It was Valentine’s Day,” Darrell Egli says with a smile.
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