Acute Chest Pain Unit
Introduction
Chest pain that occurs suddenly can be very disturbing and sometimes frightening. It can be due to a myriad of causes, from something as simple as a muscle strain to something dangerous like a heart attack. It can only be conclusively determined by visiting a physician. Unfortunately, there are people who try to sleep it off only to find out later that they had a heart attack. For the treatment of heart attacks, time is of the essence, the earlier it is recognized and treated, the better the outcomes. There are rarer life threatening causes of chest pain like aortic dissection which can only be picked up by expert clinical assessment and a CT X-ray scan.
With this in mind, we have set up a one-stop acute chest pain unit which is open 24 hours. Patients with chest pain are evaluated by a cardiologist using a validated chest pain algorithm plus clinical experience. Patients who require to be admitted for further evaluation will be placed in our telemetry area which consists of 5 suites. The patient’s heart rhythm will be monitored real-time and there will be individual attention from a nurse. There is rapid access to blood tests and X-ray facilities to conclusively rule out a heart attack or other rarer life threatening causes of chest pain. The patients with a diagnosis of a heart attack will be transferred to the invasive cardiac laboratory at Tan Tock Seng Hospital for immediate coronary intervention. Patients who do not have immediate signs of a heart attack will be monitored up to 8 hours and if all tests are negative, they will be discharged safely home.
The purpose of the chest pain unit is to provide the public rapid access to specialist care and the safe evaluation of the acute chest pain and the appropriate treatment. The acute chest pain unit is located at the 8th floor of Novena Medical Center #08-24, within the premises of Novena Surgery.