Cardiac & Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Comprehensive Rehab for Healthy Heart & Lungs

The Cardiac & Pulmonary rehabilitation services at Carteret Health Care treats conditions involving the heart and lungs. Our skilled rehabilitation team offers a supportive environment for patients in the aftermath of a cardiac event such as a heart attack, or after being diagnosed with a lung condition. Our cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation program serves as an exercise and education program designed for people with heart or lung conditions.

Education is another key component for cardiac rehabilitation patients, teaching patients how to decrease their risk factors, how to take their medication properly, and how to reduce stress.

Who Should Have Cardiac or Pulmonary Rehabilitation?

Some of the conditions which may indicate you should seek cardiac or pulmonary rehabilitation include:

• Bypass surgery
• Valve repair or replacement surgery
• Stable angina
• Heart attack
• Coronary artery bypass graft surgery
• Angioplasty
• Heart transplant
• Congestive heart failure
• Coronary stent placement
• Chronic heart failure

What Is Cardiac Rehabilitation?

Those who have sustained a heart attack or other serious cardiac event are often referred to cardiac rehabilitation. This is a guided program where patients work with trained cardiac health specialists to develop a personalized care plan. Cardiac rehabilitation may be recommended after a patient undergoes heart or cardiovascular surgery, but not always. The primary goal of this program is to remove artery plaque, strengthen the vascular system, and strengthen the heart. Even when the program is completed, patients will need to continue the habits they developed during the rehab to maintain the results.

Most patients return to their regular activities within a few months after a heart attack or surgery. Cardiac rehabilitation monitors and improves the recovery, increases fitness and reduces the risk of new events. These goals are accomplished through multidisciplinary teams of nurses, physicians, health educators, physical therapists, and dietitians. Cardiac rehabilitation provides exercise prescriptions to increase physical activity and fitness. Our program offers medically supervised and monitored exercise. The fit individual is able to exercise harder and longer, with less effort than when not fit. For heart patients, exercise may lessen the risk and severity of another attack.

Cardiac rehabilitation teaches patients about their disease and how to cope with its physical and psychological manifestations. Programs and individual counseling are available to help patients stop smoking, lose weight, lower high blood pressure and cholesterol and reduce emotional stress.

For the participants, cardiac rehabilitation does the following:

• Provides specific guidelines for physical activity
• Serves as a resource for educational information
• Decreases anxiety and depression
• Improves quality of life
• Facilitates return to work
• Reduces exacerbations and hospitalizations
• Promotes independence and self-reliance
• Increases exercise tolerance

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Pulmonary rehabilitation can help patients suffering from various forms of lung disease. Given that most forms of lung disease make it difficult for patients to breathe, exercises are specially crafted at a pace that is safe. This could be as short to 1 to 2 minutes at a time. Pulmonary therapists are given special training on how to carefully monitor their patients in order to differentiate between exhaustion that will naturally occur in exercise, and that which is the result of a dangerous symptom of their condition.

You may benefit from pulmonary rehab if you have been diagnosed with:

• Cystic fibrosis
• Asthma
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Sarcoidosis
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• Chronic bronchitis

Many patients who undergo chest or lung surgery may want to consider pulmonary rehabilitation during their recovery. By the end of the program, participants should have tools to help them live a normal, productive life.

For more information about our cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation programs in Carteret County, please call 252-499-6616.