Cardiac Rehab
Strengthen Your Heart
Whether you’ve had a heart attack, heart surgery or other heart procedure, getting back to your life can be difficult. As part of Saint Vincent Hospital’s dedication to your overall health, our Cardiovascular Prevention and Fitness Program helps you reduce cardiovascular risk factors and improve your cardiovascular health and fitness.
Individualized Treatment for You
Every person — and every heart — is different. As part of this 12-week, medically prescribed and supervised program, our cardiovascular rehab specialists work with you and your doctors to design a program that gets you up and moving after a heart attack or heart procedure. It’s important that your plan reflect your lifestyle, so we partner with you on everything from exercise to nutrition so that your overall health improves as your heart recovers and returns to normal.
Benefits of the cardiac rehab program include:
- Improved cardiovascular fitness
- Improved sense of well-being
- Lower risk of cardiovascular disease progression
- Reduced risk of heart attack or other cardiovascular problems
Program participants meet with our cardiovascular team for an assessment, and then everyone works together to build a treatment plan consisting of:
- Education (nutrition, weight management, smoking cessation and more)
- Physical activity
- Supervision
- Counseling
Who Is Eligible?
Saint Vincent Hospital’s Cardiovascular Prevention Program is a comprehensive, advanced program for people with known cardiovascular diseases. We work with you and your doctor to prevent further disease, while also boosting your physical, psychological, vocational and social health. The program is designed for individuals who have had:
- Heart attacks
- Heart transplant
- Open heart surgery
- Stabile angina
- Stents/angioplasty
- Congestive heart failure (CHF) - click below for information on insurance coverage for CHF patients
CHF - Insurance Coverage
Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) – Will my insurance cover rehab?
Congestive heart failure is a major cause for hospital readmissions. There have been numerous studies to show that life style management can significantly decrease readmission. For this reason Medicare has expanded their Cardiac Rehabilitation coverage to include congestive heart failure (CHF).
A referral for cardiac rehabilitation can be offered to patients with CHF with a referring diagnosis of CHF AND meets all 4 criteria below:
- EF < 35% or NY Class II-IV
- On optimal therapy for CHF for at least six weeks
- No unplanned cardiovascular admissions within the last six weeks
- No planned cardiovascular admissions/procedures within the last six months
- Patients can be referred to Cardiac Rehabilitation program by calling the Cardiovascular Prevention & Fitness Program at (508) 363-5177 or by faxing an order sheet to (508) 363-5343.
In the Cardiac Rehabilitation, patients will be enrolled in a 12 week program of comprehensive lifestyle management and monitored exercise.