Most patients return to their usual 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 treatments by nurses, physicians, health educators, clinical exercise physiologist, physical therapists, dieticians, social workers, and psychologists. The Cardiac Rehabilitation Program is designed to help individuals with coronary heart disease reach their optimum level of functioning. The program begins with education while you are in the hospital that informs you how to modify certain behaviors that adversely affect your heart function. The goal of this phase is to achieve cardiac conditioning through an individually designed, monitored exercise and education program conducted on an outpatient basis.