Vascular and Echocardiography Laboratories at Mercy Health Partners Receive Three Year Accreditation

March 8, 2006 – Mercy Health Partners’ Non-Invasive Vascular Services has attained accreditation by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories (ICAEL) and the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratories (ICAVL).

One American dies every 32 seconds of cardiovascular disease, disorders of the heart and blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, costing society over $83.7 billion each year in health services, medications and lost work time due to disability.

“We are very proud of the results of these surveys,” says Lori Wightman, MSN, RN, Director of Heart and Vascular Services at MHP. “The accreditation of the echocardiography and vascular laboratories at MHP is a great achievement for this community. It shows that MHP is committed to providing the best cardiac and vascular care locally and is endorsed by an independent approval process as a facility that provides high quality care.”

ICAEL and ICAVL have developed an accreditation program, which evaluates the quality of technical and interpretive abilities of the staff and other critical elements of echocardiography and vascular laboratories. Participation in the accreditation process is voluntary. Accreditation status signifies that MHP has been reviewed by an independent agency, which recognizes the laboratory’s commitment to patient care and quality testing for the diagnosis of heart and vascular disease.

Anatomic structure and flow information provided by echocardiographic and vascular testing is useful in the early detection and management of many types of heart and vascular disease. These noninvasive tests have become the standard diagnostic tools in cardiology.

MHP’s echocardiography laboratory is one of the first one thousand echocardiography laboratories in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico to be recognized for its commitment to patient care and high quality diagnostic testing.

MHP is the specialty referral hospital along the lakeshore. HealthGrades, a national independent healthcare quality ratings organization, recently awarded MHP with the 2006 Distinguished Quality Award of Clinical Excellence™.