Cardiac Rehabilitation and Wellness

Cardiac rehabilitation is a medically supervised program designed to improve cardiovascular health through exercise, lifestyle changes and stress reduction.

If you have heart disease or have experienced a cardiac event or surgery, our cardiac rehabilitation and wellness program can help you change your lifestyle and provide you with the tools to stay on your new path.

Housed in Jacobs Medical Center, we offer state-of-the-art exercise and monitoring equipment, exam rooms, a teaching kitchen and multipurpose room. 

Our Services 

We partner with Pritikin Intensive Cardiac Rehab to provide comprehensive, early outpatient rehabilitation services. We focus on the three key pillars of the Pritikin program: Regular exercise, heart-healthy nutrition and a healthy mind-set.

Our program includes: 

• A one-on-one medical evaluation to determine your needs and any limitations you may have
• An exercise regimen tailored to your current fitness level. This may be strength training and/or cardiovascular exercise using a treadmill, bike or rowing machine, or a plan for walking or jogging
• Engaging, Pritikin-exclusive workshops and cooking classes that will teach you how to:
• Implement lifestyle changes to improve heart health
• Start and maintain a safe and effective exercise program at home
• Shop for and cook heart healthy meals
• Lose weight using healthy scientific strategies
• Make heart healthy choices when dining out
• Manage daily stress
• Quit smoking
• Individual nutrition counseling with a registered dietitian
• Health coaching sessions with our registered nurses, exercise physiologists or behavioral health professional to help you start and maintain heart-healthy behaviors to reduce stress and promote active living
• Monitoring new or ongoing symptoms, blood pressure, and heart rate and ECG readings

Our program includes 36 or 72 sessions, depending on your insurance or Medicare coverage.

Patients We Serve

We work with patients who have experienced one or more of the following:

• Heart attack
• Coronary artery bypass surgery
• Current stable angina
  
• Heart valve repair or replacement
• Coronary angioplasty or coronary stenting
• Heart or heart-lung transplant
  
• Congestive heart failure
• VAD (ventricular assist device) procedure
• Peripheral arterial disease (supervised exercise therapy program)
  

Meet Our Cardiac Rehab Specialists

• Pam Taub, MD, FACC
  
• Jia Shen, MD
  

Our experts also include:

• Registered nurses
• Exercise physiologists
• Registered dietitians
• Behavioral health specialists
• Fitness instructors (tai chi, yoga, etc.)
  
• Program manager and staff

Benefits of Cardiac Rehabilitation

Cardiac rehabilitation can:

• Reduce the risk of a future heart-related event
• Decrease the frequency and severity of chest pain
• Lower the likelihood of future surgery
• Lessen dependence on medications
• Lower cholesterol, control weight and improve blood pressure
• Increase capacity for exercise
• Improve quality of life by decreasing depression and/or anxiety
  

American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR)

The program is certified by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR), which recognizes our commitment to providing high quality patient care and services.