Genesis Phase II Cardiac Rehab Receives Re-Certification!

The Phase II Cardiac Rehabilitation Program of Genesis Medical Center, Davenport has received national re-certification from the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation.

Program certification means the Davenport program adheres to the latest clinical standards and guidelines. Certification requires a systematic approach to clinical care; promotes quality patient care; provides patients with a benchmark for comparing other cardiac rehab programs; and provides program leaders with best practice guidelines.

The program at Genesis, Davenport is among the largest in the country, with approximately 300 patients actively enrolled in Phase II, Phase III and Phase IV rehabilitation. Phase I begins while a patient is still hospitalized. Phase II is for patients in the first few months of post-hospitalization, and Phase III is a maintenance program of educational classes, exercise and heart monitoring. Phase IV patients exercise with Phase III patients but are not monitored as intensely.

Only 10-20 percent of the 2 million patients a year who experience heart attack or undergo procedures for coronary artery disease participate in cardiac rehabilitation, says the American Heart Association.  "A startling number of patients think that they are fixed after they have bypass surgery or stents," says Karen Doy, Supervisor of Cardiac Rehabilitation at Genesis, Davenport. "Often, people don't understand that this is a chronic disease that they will have for as long as they live. We can improve their survival, but we need them to do everything they can do to improve their own longer-term outcomes."

Last year, patients from Genesis' Davenport and Illini campuses made nearly 73,000 visits to cardiac rehabilitation.