Cardiac program takes broad view of rehabilitation

CHESTERTOWN - Shore Regional Health's Center for Cardio-Pulmonary Fitness and Wellness in Chestertown takes its full name seriously - it provides a total wellness approach for patients who are participating in its comprehensive four-phase program.

The program begins with Phase I, which patients usually enter after a heart attack or other cardiac episode. In this phase, the patient and family receives a personalized plan of education that details the specific health issues, suggested exercise and what else that can be done to improve risk factors.

Phase II is an outpatient program that lasts two to three months and brings patients to the hospital for a personalized and monitored exercise program. He or she also will participate in group and individual classes that cover medications, blood pressure control, diet and stress management.

In Phase III, the participants exercise independently at the hospital facility with qualified staff present. After completion of Phase III, patients can participate in an adult fitness program, offered in a supportive atmosphere with other cardiac rehabilitation patients.

"The most important benefit of the entire program is the overall physical and emotional support we provide," said Sherrie Hill, who has been with the program since its inception in 1994 and oversees it in Chestertown. "We educate our patients and support them in many domains, both physical and emotional. We do a lot of handholding, back patting, and tear drying."

Recently, there were no tears present at the Chestertown facility. Two patients, Shirley Dorsey of Kennedyville and Marie Orem of Fairlee, worked out on the various exercise equipment while alternately groaning and grinning.

"We encourage a very positive and healthy lifestyle to improve the overall quality of life for all our participants," Nurse Wendy Barnette, who has been with program for three years, said. "We believe in early intervention and really keeping up with what is going on in our patients' lives. This program is very successful at preventing further hospitalizations. We have lots of resources at the hospital and in the community that we can refer patients to when we start to see a problem."

Establishing a sense of community within the program and among its participants is a key element to the its success.

Although some patients are in their 50s and younger and are still working, most of the program's participants are in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Most of these are retired, and a high percentage of them live alone.

"This is a great program right in our back yard," said one of the participants. "It began for a lot of us as a medical necessity, but now it also gives us support and socialization, and those things are very important to our rehabilitation."