The team at York Hospital's Heart Health Care Services has once again received ICAEL accreditation.
Courtesy photo
ICAEL is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring high-quality patient care in cases regarding all modes of adult cardiac ultrasound - adult echo, stress echo and Ttansesophageal echo (TEE). Echocardiography uses sound waves to create a real-time moving picture of the heart.
Today's healthcare organizations are held to very high levels of accountability by peers, by the general public and by Medicare and other payers. ICAEL accreditation is a means by which echocardiography laboratories can evaluate and demonstrate the level of patient care they provide.
According to York Hospital, the cardiology staff invited the challenge, for the second time in three years, and passed swimmingly. Due largely to the focused efforts of Cardiologist and Medical Director Dr. Lance Briggs and Sonographers Rick Fleming and Mary Ann Colaneri, who specialize in adult echocardiography, York Hospital's Echo Lab is one of only about 1,000 labs in a world of over 10,000 to gain ICAEL accreditation.
"We're proud to place the skills of our sonographers and physicians under the scrutiny of experts in the field, with such positive results!" said York Hospital Heart Health Care Leader Robert Nast. "We trust that our abilities, along with this accreditation demonstrate the team's high degree of commitment to quality care, and allow our patients to take comfort and confidence in our staff's interpretive and technical skill."
In a country where one American dies every 32 seconds of cardiovascular disease and disorders of the heart and blood vessels, information provided by echocardiographic testing is useful in the detection and management of many types of heart disease. The noninvasive test has become one of the standard diagnostic tools, a complex imaging technique relying heavily on the experience and training of both the physician and sonographer.
York Hospital's Heart Health Care Team offers a full spectrum of cardiac care, from diagnostics including nuclear stress tests and vascular ultrasound to intervention, including angioplasty and electrophysiology. The team also offers a renowned cardiac rehabilitation program and innovative congestive heart failure clinic, along with many exercise and nutrition programs. To find out more, call 351-2424.
