By Jessica Pupovac
The Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Two years ago, Mary Faust’s life was downright hectic.
A single mother, Faust was juggling three jobs — bank teller, manicurist and crossing guard. But that was fine by her.
“I’m not the type that likes to sit still,” said Faust, 47.
But at a New Year’s Eve party in 2007, Faust had her first bout of chest pain. Within a year, the pain had become so frequent and intense that she struggled to take a shower, lost all of her jobs and stopped being able to attend her 14-year-old son’s football games.
Because ambulances responding to 911 calls take patients to the nearest emergency care facility, Faust bounced around among three hospitals near her Sauganash neighborhood and has been evaluated by “about a dozen” doctors. She said she never felt like anyone really took the time to help until she became the first patient at Rush University Medical Center’s new Outpatient Chest Pain Center, which opened May 11.
“It’s been a real rough year and a half,” Faust said, “a real roller coaster.”
Dr. Gary Schaer, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Rush, said it’s a story he hears all too often: patients not getting the comprehensive follow-up care they need to improve heart condition.
“It’s a terribly broken system — we all recognize that,” Schaer said. “Many patients can’t access the physicians they need to see, and even if they can access them they can’t access them quickly.”
That is one reason Schaer and his colleagues decided to open the clinic, now a one-stop shop where chest pain sufferers can be tested and evaluated in one day by Rush’s cardiac experts. To make an appointment, call 888-352-7874.
“What we’re trying to do is we’re encouraging people with concerns about their heart to quickly get into the system, get seen, get evaluated and get a diagnosis and a prescription for health.”
The center strives to do for patients in one day what, through the traditional referral process, could take weeks.
For Faust, that has meant switching medications, beginning a physical therapy regimen and, if that doesn’t work, considering one of Rush’s research trials.
“The doctor is giving me hope. He’s telling me he’s going to be able to get me back to health, which is great because I have a lot of life left to live,” she said.
James Unland, president of Chicago health-care consulting firm Health Capital Group, said, “This is a step further in point-of-service medicine and it corresponds with a growing trend in the whole industry.”
More and more, he said, hospitals are realizing that they have to make health care easier and more accessible for patients, who are fed up with the bureaucracy.
Experts also say hospitals are becoming more competitive as patients look outside the traditional health-care system and pharmacy chains start to offer more services.
“It’s both an offensive and a defensive move and, frankly, I think it’s brilliant,” Unland said.
If patients don’t have a heart problem, Rush’s physicians will look for other sources of chest pain. They also will evaluate any risk factors that could lead to more serious heart conditions down the road.
The Illinois Department of Public Health said 88 percent of all Illinois residents have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which remains the No.1 killer in the state and around the world, despite medical advances and aggressive public education efforts.
Schaer said that while the center might ease pressure on emergency rooms, it should not be seen as an alternative.
“If you’re having severe pain that’s not going away, don’t make an appointment to see us because you might not be alive to see us,” he said. “You’ve got to call 911.”
The outpatient center, he said, is strictly for chronic chest pain sufferers who are dissatisfied with their treatment plan and, like Faust, looking for another opinion.
“You have to be your own advocate,” said Janet Haw, clinical administrator for cardiology at Rush. “There are tons of stories out there where people complained and were blown off. If you don’t take charge of your treatment, no one else is going to do that for you.”
Copyright 2009 Chicago Tribune Company