Rehabilitation Systems

Heart failure rehabilitation can improve a patient's functional ability, alleviate activity-related symptoms, improve quality of life, restore and maintain physiological, psychological, and social status. At Rehabilitation Systems, we have the combined expertise from our multidisciplinary team to lead the way in Heart Failure Rehabilitation program development and implementation for restorative professionals and their patients.
Key Features
 Disease management training and education.
 Signs and symptoms recognition with appropriate response patterns.
 A continuum of restorative service from inpatient to outpatient to the home setting.
 Individualized treatment plans with online health coaching.
 Webinars on medications, activity, weighing, nutrition, & stress management.
 Lifestyle modification with secondary prevention planning.
Program Outcomes
 Improve cardiac output and myocardial contractility
 Achieve optimal fluid and sodium balance
 Education appropriate for understanding CHF pharmaceutical regimen
 Improve patient self-management through aggressive patient/family education
 Reduce cycle of hospital admissions and overall cost of care for patients with CHF
 Maximize functional independence
 Improve quality of life

Heart Failure Rehab Inclusion Criteria
The inclusion criteria selected for this program is consistent with several studies on exercise and heart failure. Candidates for cardiac rehabilitation should be in the New York Heart Association class II or III because class IV is unable to perform enough exercise to progress safely in an outpatient program, and class I is already at a functional level that doesn‟t require rehabilitation. An additional criterion, presented below, is a group of patients that have shown progress in exercise trials.
Any patient with a diagnosis of heart failure and an ejection fraction of > 35% is a candidate for heart failure rehabilitation. Other candidates include those recovering from myocardial infarction, recent Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts, valve replacement, or New York Heart Association class II or III. To ensure safety of participants, people recovering from a cardiac event or procedure should be 4 weeks past the event and within 3 months.
Inclusion criteria:
 EF > 35%
 Myocardial infarction (>4 weeks, <3 months)
 Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (>4 weeks, < 3 months)
 Valve replacement (>4 weeks, < 3 months)
 Other recent cardiac procedures such as PTCI (>4 weeks, < 3 months)
Exclusion Criteria:
 unstable angina pectoris,
 uncompensated heart failure,
 myocardial infarction during the past 4 weeks,
 complex ventricular arrhythmias,
 orthopedic or neurological limitations to exercise