CPCs (chest pain center) serve to streamline chest pain evaluation.

Key points Heart attacks kill nearly 600,000 Americans annually. The early signs of a heart attack are often ignored--with potentially disastrous results. A chest pain center (CPC) provides readily accessible facilities for the immediate medical evaluation of chest pain. The hallmark of a CPC is its emphasis on streamlined procedures that triage patients into one of five clinical pathways, or tracks. CPCs are increasingly being recognized as cost- and mission-effective.