February 2017 Department Discovery: Cardiac Rehabilitation

The February 2017 Department Discovery shines a light on the Cardiac Rehabilitation department!

If you have a heart or lung condition, Campbell County Memorial Hospital's Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation department in Gillette, Wyoming can help you get healthy and function independently as quickly and safely as possible. Since February is known as American Heart Month, Campbell County Health wants to focus on the Cardiac Rehabilitation side of this department.

Cardiac Rehab is part of CCH’s robust Cardiology program. Our highly skilled, board certified cardiologists at the Campbell County Medical Group Cardiology clinic are here at all times to care for patients and our cardiac cath lab allows us to provide care quickly during an emergency. And we can help get you back to your daily routine after a heart incident with our Cardiac Rehabilitation program. Drs. Sairav Shah, FACC, and Nicholas Stamato, FACC, use these and other tools to diagnose and treat heart problems as the first cardiologists living and working in Gillette. The cardiac care team includes our physicians, registered nurses in the Clinic, as well as a team of registered nurses and technicians in Cardiac Cath Lab and Cardiac Rehabilitation departments.

For those who don’t know, Cardiac Rehab is a monitored exercise and education program, helping patients recover faster and return to full and productive lives. Cardiac Rehab usually begins in the hospital following a heart attack, heart surgery or other cardiac event, and continues in an outpatient setting after patients leave the hospital. Patients are referred by their doctor, and have an initial interview and orientation with one of our nurses, who will help choose a convenient time of day to attend classes, which are held three days per week. At their cardiac rehab session, patients learn how to exercise safely to strengthen and maintain a healthy heart. Exercise plans are based on individual needs, interests and abilities and monitored by registered nurses. Patients also receive information to help understand their heart condition and learn to adjust to a new lifestyle by changing their behaviors.

The department of three—Donna Reece, BSN, RN-BC; Leah Thalken, RN, CCRP, and Kelly Tryon, RN—is managed by Sherry Bailey, RN, who is also the Director of the CCMH Intensive Care Unit. Cardiac Rehabilitation is under the direction of a licensed physician, and the staff is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine. The program is also certified by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the American Nurse Credentialing Center.

The team surveys all of their patients in the program and is continually averaging a 95% satisfaction rate. “We are so fortunate that we see so much improvement with our patients who participate in the program, and we get immense satisfaction in helping people go back to live a longer, healthy life,” says Leah.

Kelly agrees, and adds: “We see a patient when they are very anxious and really aren’t sure how they are going to go back to living their life after a heart attack. We really do feel like we make a difference in our patient’s lives because we can see so much progress.”

The team has been hard at work the past few years helping CCH design a new cardiac rehab gym, which will have an open house on Thursday, March 9 from 2-4 pm. “We’re growing to meet the needs of our community,” says Sherry. “We’re excited to be able to increase the number of patients we serve, and we will also begin offering a maintenance program.”

The gym has grown from 645 square feet to more than 4,000 square feet to accommodate larger rehab classes and care for our patients well into the future. (We sure hope you can come check it out; learn more about it here!)

A big round of applause to the Cardiac Rehabilitation team at CCMH! Thank you for all that you do in keeping our community healthy.

Learn more about Cardiac Rehab at www.cchwyo.org/CR.