Our Program
Cardiac Rehabilitation at Munson Community Health Center is designed to meet the needs of individual patients, depending on their specific heart problem or disease. Active involvement of the patient and family is vital to the program’s success.
The goal of Cardiac Rehabilitation is to help the patient return to the highest level of function and independence possible, while improving the overall quality of life — physically, emotionally, and socially. These goals are often met by:
Decreasing cardiac symptoms and complications
Encouraging independence through self-management
Improving social, emotional, and vocational status
Increasing physical fitness
Reducing hospitalizations
Stabilizing or reversing atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the blood vessels)
Reaching Goals
To help you reach your goals, Cardiac Rehabilitation provides your health care provider with valuable, ongoing information about your clinical status that may include the following:
Exercise programs to help build fitness and improve endurance
Medication management to help reduce cardiac symptoms, complications, and hospitalizations
Methods to improve independence and activities of daily living (ADLs)
Nutritional counseling
Patient and family education and counseling
Smoking cessation
Stress management and emotional support
Benefits
Research has found Cardiac Rehabilitation to benefit patients in the following ways:
Improves cardiac symptoms
Reduces blood cholesterol levels
Lowers blood pressure
Lowers blood sugar levels
Reduces cigarette smoking
Improves psychosocial well-being and reduces stress
Reduces death due to heart disease
Provides physicians with valuable surveillance data
Heart Conditions
Cardiac Rehabilitation is designed to help participants get in better shape, physically and mentally, after having been diagnosed with:
Angina pectoris
Cardiomyopathy
Congestive heart failure
Coronary artery disease
Peripheral artery disease
Certain congenital heart diseases
Any risk factors for heart disease: abnormal cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, being overweight, sedentary lifestyle, family history, or after having:
Cardioverter or defibrillator implant
Heart attack
Heart transplant
Open-heart surgery
Pacemaker implant
Cardiac Rehab Team
Skilled professionals are part of the Cardiac Rehabilitation team, including:
Dietitians
Exercise physiologists
Rehabilitation nurses
The team uses research-based interventions to tailor programs for each participant. The program has seven components:
Cardiovascular evaluation
Education and counseling about coronary risk reduction
Exercise training
Medical surveillance and emergency support when appropriate
Outcomes documentation and assessment
Psychosocial counseling
Stress management techniques
Exercise and Education
Phase II Cardiac Rehabilitation is an outpatient program that begins with a preliminary evaluation to determine your cardiovascular status.
This heart-monitored exercise and education program takes place in a medically supervised group setting. Based on preliminary test results, specific exercises are prescribed during sessions held two to three times a week. Participants can join a cardiac support group, cardiac education classes, and a weight-training program. Individual dietary counseling also is available.
Ongoing Cardiac Rehabilitation
As an ongoing program, Phase III Cardiac Rehabilitation allows you to continue medically supervised exercise in a group setting three days a week for one hour. Also available are:
Educational counseling
Individual weight management and dietary counseling
Informative handouts on cardiac-related subjects
Mini-lectures
Relaxation/support group
Smoking cessation programs
Weight training
For additional information on Cardiac Rehabilitation, or to schedule a visit, call (231) 935-8565.
Cardiac Lecture Series
Monthly cardiac education classes are held at Munson Community Health Center during the day and at Munson Medical Center in the evenings. Topics include nutrition, stress management techniques, heart healthy exercise, and heart attack and stroke awareness. For more information, call (231) 935-8565.
For a listing of available heart classes:
Enhanced External Counterpulsation: EECP
A new technique is significantly improving the quality of life for some heart patients, allowing them to resume activities of daily living, social interaction, and recreation.
Munson offers an innovative, non-invasive therapy known as Enhanced External Counterpulsation (EECP) for some patients with disabling angina. EECP is provided on an outpatient basis at Munson Community Health Center in 35 sessions over a period of seven weeks. The patient lies on a treatment table for one hour as compressive cuffs wrapped around the patient’s calves, thighs, and buttocks inflate and deflate. Inflation and deflation are timed to the patient’s EKG. Clinical studies indicate that 70 to 80 percent of patients realize therapeutic benefits from increased blood flow immediately upon completion of a course of EECP therapy.
Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation Munson Community Health Center
550 Munson Avenue
Traverse City, MI 49686 (231) 935-8565
If you are a Munson Healthcare patient and have a compliment,
concern, or complaint, please contact one of our Patient
Liaisons.
