Transcription:
What Stoughton Health Cardiac Rehab Offers

Amanda Wilde (Host): This is Stoughton Health Talk. I'm Amanda Wilde. And I invite you to listen as we talk about heart health and cardiac rehabilitation. Joining me is Lucy Bergenthal, Exercise Physiologist to talk about how cardiac rehabilitation works. Thank you so much for being here, Lucy. Who needs cardiac rehab?

Lucy Bergenthal, B.S. & M.S. (Guest): So, cardiac rehab is designed for patients when they're recovering from a cardiac event. So, that could be anything ranging from a heart attack to heart failure diagnosis, other times a bypass surgery, or even just chest pain with exercise. So, there's a wide range of patients that we see on a daily basis.

Host: So, a doctor will tell the patient, hey, I think you need rehab and send them to you?

Lucy: Yes, we will get a referral from typically a cardiologist after you're in the hospital.

Host: And then you said that cardiac rehabilitation, it happens after an event, that may have put you in the hospital. How soon after that event should cardiac rehabilitation start?

Lucy: Typically, we'll start to see patients about two weeks after they're home from the hospital. It can also depend on their recovery time. So sometimes, it's a little bit sooner if they're eager to get started or a little bit after, depending on, you know, if they had a more invasive surgery.

Host: Can you explain your role? Like what exactly is an exercise physiologist?

Lucy: So, an exercise physiologist, we're in charge of monitoring a patient's recovery and their heart health after that cardiac event. So, when the patients come to see us, we'll put them through an evaluation and talk about their medical history, the events that they went through, more recently, and then how to best recover from here on out.

So, when they come to us, we'll hook them up to an EKG monitor and that way we can monitor their heart rate and their heart rhythm and make sure that they're responding to exercise appropriately. We also take a lot of blood pressures and that's another way we can see how their heart is responding to the exercise that we're putting them through.

Host: Well, what kind of exercises do you do in cardiac rehabilitation?

Lucy: We have a variety of different exercises. So we have treadmills, bikes, we also have some machines where we're, you're using your arms and your legs. So something kind of like a stepping motion. We also have machines where you're just using your upper body. So kind of like an arm bike.

Host: Hmm. And how long is a typical rehab session?

Lucy: So, our exercise sessions are one hour long and patients typically get up to 36 sessions. So, people will come see us typically three days a week. And so we're with our patients for about 12 weeks.

Host: And then, what do you see in your patients that tells you the program is working?

Lucy: A lot of the times we'll see their heart rates are responding appropriately to the exercise. That means that, we want to see them about 20 to 30 beats above their resting heart rate. So, a lot of the times we can see them do more intense exercise and their heart rate won't get as high. A lot of the times they can also tolerate exercise, they're able to walk faster on the treadmill or pedal faster on the bike. So, we're really able to progress their intensity. And then the total time that their exercising.

Host: Oh, I see. If I'm coming to you for cardiac rehabilitation and I've had an event, what would be the most important thing for me to know about what I'm about to face in rehabilitation?

Lucy: So, everyone's journey is really different when they come to cardiac rehab. Some people have been avid exercisers their whole life, and are really looking to just make sure that they're recovering in a safe manner, that they're, you know, taking that exercise progression in a way that is safe for their heart and their recovery.

And a lot of patients haven't exercised consistently in their life at all. So, learning the benefits of the exercise and how to structure each exercise session. So, I'd say, come in with an open mind and see what you can learn and how to structure the exercise and really get the benefits you're looking for. I always tell our patients that knowing your goals is really important to me. That way I can help build you your best exercise program possible.

Host: And what do you want to see patients take away from the experience?

Lucy: I love when patients leave knowing that they have the confidence and the skills to continue exercising on their own. So, leaving, you know, with the tools to continue to exercise throughout their life. And we even have a program for that. Our maintenance program is something that we can offer to patients after cardiac rehab, during the monitored portion where they can come in and use our facility to exercise in more of an unmonitored program.

Host: So, you see patients all the way through, from recovering from a heart event to heart health.

Lucy: Yes. So, the program we were discussing is titled phase two cardiac rehab. And that's when we're looking at the EKGs and the blood pressures and really building their exercise program for them. And then patients have the opportunity to graduate into phase three. So, this is also called our primary prevention program. So, this is where patients can come in and they have an hour long exercise session that they can really build themselves. So, that's when they're able to use the tools that we've kind of worked on with them and taught them through phase two. And they're able then to kind of apply that on their own.

Host: So, yeah, you take someone who may not have exercised at all, like you said, regularly in a lifetime and by the end of rehabilitation, they're able to figure out their own sessions.

Lucy: Yes, exactly.

Host: That's great. Now doing this work, what's most important to you about what Stoughton Health cardiac rehab offers?

Lucy: I think the most important thing that we can offer is just a way for patients to maintain their health, through exercise. So, giving them the opportunity to learn more about heart health. And then also to kind of carry that out in practice, through exercise.

Host: Sounds like such a great program and so necessary. Lucy, thank you so much for a very informative chat.

Lucy: Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Host: And for more information, head on over to our website at stoughtonhealth.com to get connected with one of our providers. This concludes this episode of Stoughton Health Talk. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all other Stoughton Hospital podcasts. I'm Amanda Wilde. Stay safe and be well.