title: CPCs (chest pain center) serve to streamline chest pain evaluation.
abstract: Key points Heart attacks kill nearly 600,000 Americans annually. The early signs of a heart attack are often ignored--with potentially disastrous results. A chest pain center (CPC) provides readily accessible facilities for the immediate medical evaluation of chest pain. The hallmark of a CPC is its emphasis on streamlined procedures that triage patients into one of five clinical pathways, or tracks. CPCs are increasingly being recognized as cost- and mission-effective.
mesh_terms: D015142:Baltimore; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D017046:Cost Savings; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis; D018710:Pain Clinics / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data