Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation
The emphasis is on you!
The UnityPoint Health - St. Luke's Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation programs are here to help you begin a new way of life. Through exercise, you can strengthen your heart, lungs and overall health. Plus, we're here to give you tips for leading a healthier lifestyle.
A physician referral is required for both cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation.
WHAT IS CARDIAC REHAB?
Cardiac Rehabilitation (Rehab) at UnityPoint Health – St. Luke's, offers a supervised exercise program with educational and emotional support for individuals and groups. With individual exercise regimes and lifestyle
training in nutrition and heart health, the Cardiac Rehabilitation program helps those recovering from heart conditions get healthy and stay healthy. Cardiac Rehab helps improve the quality of life for those who have experienced:
- A heart attack
- Open heart surgery
- A history of heart disease
PHASE ONE: For hospital patients who've experienced a heart attack or open heart surgery. Phase one of cardiac rehab actually occurs before you leave the hospital. The nurses in the cardiac unit along with cardiac rehab nurses, physical therapists, dieticians, social workers and pharmacists make up a team that will work with you and your family to help you in the rehabilitation process. Along with your doctor, the team caring for you at the hospital will see that all of your questions and concerns are resolved before you leave the hospital.
PHASE TWO: If your doctor determines you are a candidate for phase two cardiac rehabilitation, you will be referred to our outpatient cardiac rehabilitation clinic located at Sunnybrook Medical Plaza. Phase two cardiac rehabilitation begins one to two weeks after your dismissal from the hospital. Each phase two visit includes prescribed individual exercise and reinforcement of education from phase one. The goal of this phase is to reduce the adverse effects of inactivity and to begin strengthening your cardiovascular system.
PHASE THREE: This phase is optional for you, but it may be recommended by your primary care physician. In this phase, group exercise is offered three times a week to strengthen your cardiovascular health. If your doctor feels it will be beneficial, you may be referred to this phase without having been involved in the first two phases, to prevent serious heart problems.
WHAT IS PULMONARY REHAB?
Pulmonary Rehabilitation (Rehab) at UnityPoint Health® – St. Luke's, offers a supervised exercise program with educational and emotional support for individuals and groups. Pulmonary Rehab helps improve the quality of life for those with lung conditions such as:
- Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD)
- Emphysema
- Chronic bronchitis
- Asthma
- Pulmonary hypertension
- Interstitial lung disease
- Lung Cancer / surgery
PULMONARY REHAB HELPS YOU:
- Improve the strength of muscles you use for breathing
- Manage shortness of breath
- Increase upper body strength
- Improve ability to do daily activities
- Improve quality of life
- Avoid or shorten hospital stays
- Lower stress and depression levels
PULMONARY REHAB TEACHES:
- Medicine actions, side effects, proper inhaler use
- Safe and proper use of oxygen
- Healthy eating plan and weight control
- Breathing retraining
- Importance of exercise
- Tips for dealing with breathing problems
- Help to quit smoking (if needed)
WHAT CAN I EXPECT?
Your provider will do an exam and a breathing test called spirometry before referring you to the pulmonary rehabilitation program. We will use the results of this test to begin care planning.
During the first session we will:
- Review your medical history
- Discuss your needs and goals
- Explain the program
- Perform a timed walk test
- Provide guidelines for home exercise and breathing techniques.