The Evaluation of Patient, Provider and Organizational Outcomes Following the Implementation of a Chest Pain Unit

Abstract
In February 2013, a new Chest Pain Unit (CPU) opened in a 238 bed community hospital in the Mid-Atlantic region. The purpose of this Capstone project was to evaluate patient, provider and organizational outcomes associated with the implementation of this new unit as compared to routine care. Selected outcomes were compared for those patients treated in the CPU (n=30) and those patients (n=30) who were treated on the Routine Care Unit (RCU) during a 90 day timeframe. Statistically significant differences were found between the ages of each population. Troponin testing trended toward a reduction in the time interval between tests when performed in the CPU as compared to RCU. The overall length of stay also displayed a trend toward improvement for patients in the CPU. Insurance payments were found to be higher for CPU patients. There were no differences in clinical outcomes between the groups as measured by readmissions. Patient satisfaction with care in the CPU was also reviewed. Findings in this evaluation indicated trends toward improvement for all variables studied and further investigation of these initial findings is indicated to determine if statistically significant differences may exist when comparing the total population of low risk chest pain patients in each location over an extended timeframe.
Keywords: chest pain unit, patient outcomes, effectiveness, efficiency