The heart of the heart attack problem lies in the community and it is here where the ultimate Coronary Care Unit must reach. Thus it becomes very important to interface early with the public when heart attack symptoms are developing. It has to do with shifting the paradigm of heart attack care to earlier recognition where we discover acute prevention and the benefits that come from this. The barrier to this we still face. The Best is shifting the paradigm of care to Acute Prevention.
Early intervention amounts to acute prevention.
Stopping the heart attack allows one to use this teachable moment to educate about primary risk factor reduction. Thus disease prevention brings about health promotion. Patients come to the hospital when they are experiencing chest pain or chest discomfort. A Chest Pain Center in the Emergency Department is a way that a community hospital can focus attention on heart attacks through chest pain evaluation. It then becomes a basic subunit that when multiplied by the 6700 community hospitals in the United States provides widespread penetration for the heart attack deaths to be prevented.