LVHHN Echocardiography Laboratories Earn Accreditation

Lehigh Valley, Pa. (July 20, 2007) – The Echocardiography Laboratories at Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest and Lehigh Valley Hospital - Muhlenberg were accredited by The Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories (ICAEL). These laboratories join only 21 hospitals in Pennsylvania to earn this recognition and are among two of the first 1,000 echocardiography laboratories to be accredited in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

This accreditation recognizes the labs’ commitment to high quality patient care and the provision of quality diagnostic testing. To receive accreditation, a facility is reviewed by an independent agency to gauge the lab’s commitment to quality testing for the diagnosis of heart disease.

According to the ICAEL, one American dies every 32 seconds of cardiovascular disease, disorders of the heart and blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, costing society over $83.7 billion each year in health services, medications and lost work time due to disability. Cardiac structure and flow information provided by echocardiographic testing is useful in the detection and management of many types of heart disease.

The ICAEL was established with the support of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE), the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Society of Pediatric Echocardiography (SOPE) to provide a peer review mechanism to encourage and recognize the provision of quality echocardiographic diagnostic evaluations by a process of voluntary accreditation. The ICAEL is dedicated to ensuring high quality patient care and to promoting health care.

A premier academic community hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network includes three hospital facilities – two in Allentown and one in Bethlehem, Pa. – and Lehigh Valley Health Services, providing home health, hospice, pharmaceutical and health management services. In 2007, US News & World Report named Lehigh Valley Hospital one of America’s Best Hospitals for the twelfth straight year. LVHHN’s advanced regional resources include a Level I Trauma Center with added pediatric qualifications, regional Burn Center as well as kidney and pancreas transplant, perinatal/neonatal, cardiac, cancer care, and neurology and complex neurosurgery capabilities. LVHHN hospitals are designated national Magnet hospitals for excellence in nursing. LVH is one of Pennsylvania’s largest teaching hospitals and is a major teaching campus of Penn State's College of Medicine.

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