The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) had certified Swedish Ballard along with three other Swedish campuses to provide emergency cardiac care services to patients throughout the Puget Sound region.

Swedish/Cherry Hill and Swedish/Edmonds received Level 1 designations, and Swedish/First Hill and Swedish/Ballard received Level 2 designations.

The DOH recently developed the emergency cardiac system to provide a consistent, statewide certification program that recognizes the level of emergency care available to cardiac patients in medical facilities across Washington state.

"This new designation confirms Swedish’s long standing role as a leader in providing critical cardiac care in emergency settings," according to Swedish.

Swedish/Ballard was designated a Level 2 cardiac center indicating that the site can provide intermediate and immediate medical therapy to stabilize patients before transferring them to Level 1 facilities for further intervention and treatment.

After several years of evaluation and planning, the DOH decided to institute this new system to focus on improving timely access to critical emergency services for heart-attack and stroke patients. One goal of the new system is to make available a participating hospital no more than an hour away from every citizen. A second goal is to get heart-attack and stroke patients the necessary treatment at the most appropriate medical facility in less than 120 minutes.

For more information, visit http://www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/hdsp/.