LEWISTON – Central Maine Medical Center is the first Chest Pain Center in Maine to be accredited by the Society of Chest Pain Centers, according to the hospital.

It is the 141st of some 5,000 acute care hospitals in the United States to receive this honor.

The Chest Pain Center’s protocol-driven and systematic approach to patient management allows physicians to reduce time to treatment during the critical early stages of a heart attack, when treatments are most effective, and to better monitor patients when it is not clear whether they are having a heart problem. Such observation helps ensure that a patient is neither sent home too early nor needlessly admitted.

The Chest Pain Center is at 60 High St. For more information, call 795-2711.