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Saving Lives, Saving Money-Northern Israel’s First Chest Pain Unit

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Last year, Shlomo, a Haifa resident, arrived at the Emergency Department with chest pain. The doctor on duty checked him, found no reason for his pain and released him from the hospital. A few hours later, Shlomo returned to the hospital, where it became apparent that he had suffered a heart attack. Fortunately, Shlomo was treated and fully recovered his health, but not all such endings are happy.

The Chest Pain Unit at RHCC

Shlomo’s case is hardly unusual. A full 20-30% of those who arrive at Emergency Departments in the USA, Europe and Israel, complain of chest pain. Of those who are released, 2-4% are found, in retrospect, to have suffered an obstruction to the heart muscle or a serious cardiac event.

These data leave little doubt: emergency department examinations are not always successful in properly assessing chest pain. In light of this fact, which leads to loss of both life and money, Rambam Health Care Campus has opened a Chest Pain Unit (CPU). It is the second unit of its type in all of Israel, and the first in the north.

Like similar units, which have become an integral part of medical care in the USA and Europe, the Rambam CPU is outfitted with special equipment and staff. Its main goal is to subject all patients with chest pain to a comprehensive examination before releasing them. The unit also aims to prevent long-term hospitalization of patients with low-to-medium risk of heart disease by concentrating all necessary examinations in one place. And as other units around the world have already done, Rambam’s CPU seeks to reduce the price of examinations, boost patient satisfaction and improve clinical results.

The Rambam CPU is located in the new Internal Medicine E Department, next door to the Emergency Department. Truly multi-disciplinary, the unit is run jointly by the Internal Medicine E Department, led by Prof Tony Hayek; the Department of Cardiology and the Unit for Intensive Heart Care supervised by Prof Haim Hammerman; and the Emergency Department under the direction of Dr Shlomi Israelit. Dr Riad Mahamid, a senior physician in the Internal Medicine E Department, and Dr Majdi Halabi, a senior internist/cardiologist supervise the Unit’s team.

The CPU Unit employs today’s most advanced and comprehensive diagnostic tools. Patient diagnosis includes monitoring of blood pressure and pulse, continuous EKG supervision and heart enzyme checks six and 12 hours after admission. If the cause of the chest pain is not found, Unit physicians continue to seek the root of the problem by employing stress tests, pharmacological heart mapping, heart echo and angio-coronary CT (heart blood vessels) tests.

With its broad medical perspective and advanced technologies, the Unit is able to treat patients in the best possible way. For Prof Hammerman, the opening of the Unit at Rambam represents a huge step forward: “Rambam’s aspiration is to raise the level of medicine for every person who enters the gates of this hospital,” he says. “The Unit brings us much closer to achieving this goal.”