Outpatient cardiac rehab helps individuals recovering from a heart condition or cardiac surgery. These comprehensive programs reduce their mortality rates and increase positive outcomes. Each outpatient cardiac rehab plan is personalized to meet the needs of the patient. The plan is typically implemented in phases, transitioning from monitored to self-monitored care.
Basics
Cardiac rehab is a comprehensive, long-term, medically supervised program of prescribed exercises, behavior modification and counseling involving varying amounts of inpatient and outpatient support. The goals and outcomes of cardiac rehab optimize your chances of stabilizing, slowing or reversing the progression of your cardiac condition. Education and counseling on how to make healthy lifestyle choices that reduce risk factors are essential to the program's success.
Candidates
Patients who suffered a heart attack are the traditional candidates for outpatient cardiac rehab. However, it is prescribed as after care for a number of cardiac conditions. Other candidates for outpatient cardiac rehab as approved by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services include patients recovering from coronary bypass surgery, heart valve repair, transplantation or heart failure.
Efficacy
Many analyses of current clinical data regarding the efficacy of outpatient cardiac rehab show it's effective, according to an article written by M.B. Stephens from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and published in the November 2009 issue of the journal "American Family Physician." Stephens found that patients participating in a comprehensive cardiac rehab have a 15 to 28 percent reduction in all causes of death and a 26 to 31 percent reduction in cardiac deaths.
Underuse
Although outpatient cardiac rehab programs are proven beneficial to patients, only 14 percent of eligible patients participate in this kind of care after hospitalization for a heart attack, according to statistics from Medicare. Patients' commonly cited barriers to participation that promote underuse include not fully understanding the benefits, being too far from the program facility, lack of transportation and lack of a referral by the physician. A study that included 72,817 cardiac patients and published in the July 2009 issue of the "Journal of the American College of Cardiology" found that a physician referral rate of only 56 percent is a significant barrier to participation.
Dropout Rate
Many patients who enroll in an outpatient cardiac rehab program end up dropping out. Factors that increase a patient's likelihood of dropping out include old age, being female and low levels of physical activity before the heart condition, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
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