Cardiac rehabilitation

Helping you resume normal activities is our primary objective. Rehabilitation is essential to proper cardiac care, as it lowers the risk of future complications and can reduce the risk of having to undergo additional heart surgeries.

Our team of registered nurses, exercise physiologists, dieticians, pharmacists, diabetes educators and respiratory therapists work together to streamline your recovery. Alongside you and your healthcare provider, we customize a comprehensive program to meet your health and wellness goals.

Our cardiac rehabilitation program is broken into three phases and typically consists of:

• Assistance with home exercise
• Lifestyle modification education
• Nutritional counseling
• Psychological counseling
• Relaxation training
• Stress management
• Supervised exercise training

Phase one — Inpatient cardiac rehabilitation

The first phase of cardiac therapy begins during your hospitalization. During this time, one of our specialists will introduce you to a program of progressive exercises to help you regain your strength.

Additionally, our team educates you and your family on your procedure, how to reduce the risk of coronary artery disease and how to transition your recovery from the hospital to your home.

Phase two — Outpatient cardiac rehabilitation

Once out of the hospital, you will continue to work on getting stronger. The second phase of therapy involves attending an outpatient exercise program supervised by your doctor and our cardiac rehabilitation specialists. This phase usually involves 36 sessions over the course of 12 weeks.

A personalized exercise regimen is written for you, and each session includes an educational component. During these sessions, you will wear a heart monitor to monitor your blood pressure and oxygen saturation levels.

As you progress, we gradually increase the intensity and duration of your exercise. The cardiac rehabilitation staff also instructs you in incision care. We also send regular written updates and make phone calls to your primary care physician.

Phase three — Outpatient cardiac rehabilitation and fitness

Once you reach phase three of the program, the staff has determined that you not only understand how to safely perform exercises, but also apply safe risk factor modification techniques. You can exercise in the lab, and are allowed more control over the types of exercises you would like to do.

At this stage, the cardiac rehabilitation staff assists you with your exercises, but only requires you to wear a heart monitor once a month. Once you have gotten comfortable with your cardiac rehabilitation progress, it is vital that you commit to a lifelong exercise and heart-healthy diet plan for your physical well-being.

We have received the cardiac rehabilitation certification from the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. This certification demonstrates our excellence in several facets of proper cardiac rehabilitation care, such as program safety, medical oversight, personalized exercise prescription, policies and procedures. Our continued dedication to these practices has made us one of the premier cardiac rehabilitation programs across Southeast Idaho, Western Wyoming and Southern Montana.