St. Mary’s has the second-busiest emergency department between St. Louis and Kansas City for a reason. People ask for us. Last year, there were more than 36,000 visits to St. Mary’s ED, and yet our patients were treated more quickly than the national average. St. Mary’s is the only hospital in central Missouri with the highest-accredited Chest Pain Center. That means the top standards of care are used from the moment a heart-attack patient arrives in the ED, when those critical early minutes count.