The Pulmonary Hypertension Association’s (PHA’s) Pulmonary Hypertension Care Center (PHCC) program granted Regional Care Program (RCP) accreditation to the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, and the Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic at Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital – Plano, in Plano, Texas, this month. PHA created the PHCC accreditation program in 2014 to improve the quality of care and outcomes for people with pulmonary hypertension (PH). More than 12,000 people with PH are currently being treated at PHCCs, receiving care from clinicians who specialize in their often-misdiagnosed condition.
Northside Hospital and The Heart Hospital – Plano are among 60 centers that have earned PHCC accreditation. Forty-seven adult and eight pediatric centers have earned the PHCC program’s Center of Comprehensive Care (CCC) accreditation. Another five clinics have earned Regional Clinical Program (RCP) accreditation.
PHCCs are eligible and encouraged to participate in and help build the PHA registry (PHAR). PHAR collects data about newly evaluated pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) patients who are treated at PHCCs in the U.S. As of this month, 39 of the 60 accredited programs are participating in PHAR and have enrolled more than 670 patients. Data from the PHAR carries the potential to advance research and lead to better and more targeted PH treatments for the future.
