San Francisco's ONLY
Certified Chest Pain Center

If you're experiencing chest pain and think you may be having a heart attack, immediately call 911. And when you are taken to a hospital for that chest pain, CPMC is where you want to be treated. The Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) consistently designates CPMC Chest Pain Center accreditation, one of only five accredited Chest Pain Centers in California, and the only one in San Francisco.

This accreditation is given only to facilities that have demonstrated their commitment and expertise in providing patients with consistent quality in the delivery of emergency cardiac care based on national guidelines established by leaders in cardiovascular and emergency medicine. After a thorough SCPC evaluation, Chest Pain Center status was originally granted to California Pacific on May 23, 2006.

This accreditation denotes heart care excellence to our patients and our community. We wanted to demonstrate our dedication to providing quality cardiac care by becoming a Chest Pain Center.

San Francisco's Best Doctors and Clinicians Improve Chest Pain Outcomes

According to the American Heart Association, coronary heart disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in America, and approximately one in every five deaths is the result of heart attack. Recent technological advances and rapid response to heart attack symptoms can greatly reduce this statistic. Seeking care is only effective to when physicians can quickly response and diagnose patients, this means a Chest Pain Center ‘s emergency department (ED) must provide the full spectrum of emergency cardiac diagnostic services, fast-tracking patients to treatment and intervention. In the San Francisco Cay area, Richard Francoz, M.D., Medical Director of Cardiology at CPMC, and Stacy Prescot, M.D., Medical Director of Chest Pain Center, worked collaboratively to strategize and develop standardized and streamlined protocol for patients experiencing chest pain. This strategy includes reducing the time to treatment during the critical early stages, when treatments are most effective to significantly reduce heart attack deaths.

This designation does not come easily. Among the requirements for certification are dedication to clinical staff education and demonstration of how we work within the San Francisco Bay community to teach heart health.

If You Are Experiencing Chest Pain

If you are experiencing chest pain or any of the symptoms that may be a heart attack, call 911 or go to the closest Chest Pain Center emergency room. The CPMC Emergency Room Chest Pain Center is located at the corner of Sacramento and Buchanan Streets in San Francisco.

Chest Pain and Warning Symptoms of a Heart Attack

Signs of heart attack can be sudden or come on slowly with mild pain and discomfort. The American Heart Association's classic warning signs of heart attack include:

• Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain. This pain may also include stomach or abdominal pain.


• Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.


• Shortness of breath. May occur with or without chest discomfort. Difficulty breathing.


• Other signs. These may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, lightheadedness or dizziness. Palpitations or paleness. Unexplained anxiety, weakness or fatigue.

While chest pain and discomfort is the most well known symptom of heart attack for men and women, women are more likely to experience some of the other less-common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

California Pacific's Heart and Vascular Center

California Pacific's Heart and Vascular Center is supported by one of the best heart hospital/center networks in the USA, offering quality, comprehensive patient-centered cardiovascular care by a team of top heart surgeons and physicians with leading-edge technology. Serving the entire San Francisco Bay Area, including San Francisco and Marin County, as well as the entire Northern California region, our team has many of the best cardiovascular surgeons and physicians in California and the United States.