Heart Rehabilitation & Support

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Manage Your Symptoms & Live Longer

We want you to feel and function your best.

At Sanford Health, we provide support and rehabilitation for our heart patients in a variety of formats:

  • Cardiac rehabilitation
  • Heart failure program
  • Anticoagulation clinic
  • Pacemaker/device clinic
  • Heart valve clinic

More information about each program is available below.


What is cardiac rehabilitation?

Cardiac rehabilitation is a program to help people who have heart disease. People in this program may have had a heart attack or heart surgery.

Your health care provider oversees your cardiac rehab. The program is designed to improve heart recovery and prepare you for future daily activities.

Cardiac rehab can often help you get better at your daily tasks. It may ease your symptoms and give you a sense of well-being.


Who does cardiac rehab help?

Cardiac rehab may help you if you have certain heart conditions or if you’ve had certain heart procedures. These include:

  • Stable angina
  • Heart attack
  • Heart failure 
  • Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery, or bypass surgery
  • Heart valve repair or replacement
  • Heart or heart-lung transplant
  • Angioplasty with or without a stent
  • Peripheral artery disease

The cardiac rehab program

Your cardiac rehab program is designed to meet your needs. Your program may last from six weeks to more than a year.

The goal of cardiac rehab is to help ease your symptoms and make your heart as healthy as possible. Your program may include:

  • Exercise. This makes you more fit, and helps your heart work better.

     

  • Classes to help you change your lifestyle and habits. For example, your doctor may prescribe classes and support to help you quit smoking. Or you may take a nutrition class to learn how to eat better.

     

  • Stress management. You will learn how to manage stress to lower your anxiety.

     

  • Counseling. This will help you learn about your specific condition and how to live with it.

     

  • Occupational therapy. This is to help you get ready to go back to work or to manage normal activities of daily living.

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Get Exercise & Education for a Healthy Heart

Cardiac rehabilitation is a medically supervised inpatient and outpatient rehab program. It's designed for patients who have suffered a heart attack or who have had heart surgery. You get a customized program of education and exercise designed to help improve your health and reduce the risk of future heart problems. With cardiac rehab, you recover more quickly and improve your overall physical, mental and social functioning.

Talk to your doctor to learn more.

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Keep Your Condition Under Control

If you've been diagnosed with heart failure, your cardiologist or primary care doctor can recommend that you are enrolled in the Heart Failure Program. You can avoid costly hospital stays and emergency center visits by taking preventive steps to keep your condition in control. Our heart team educates you about heart failure and helps you manage your symptoms to live a longer, more comfortable life.

Being part of Sanford's Heart Failure Program also requires responsibility from you to live a healthier life. Daily care will include:

  • Checking your weight
  • Taking medications as prescribed
  • Eating a low-salt diet
  • Being active (getting regular exercise)
  • Calling the heart failure care team when you have problems

Talk to your doctor to learn more.

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Get the Most From Your Medication

Your doctor may refer you to Sanford's Anticoagulation Clinic if you're on anticoagulation or blood-thinning medications. We provide safe and convenient follow-up care for patients taking blood thinners such as Warfarin (Coumadin). We educate and monitor to help you get the best results from your medication and decrease negative side effects, such as bleeding and blood clotting. Our services include:

  • Making adjustments for anticoagulation doses
  • Managing anticoagulation therapy prior to procedures or surgeries
  • Providing comprehensive education and teaching for patients and families
  • Offering a private pharmacist conversation each visit to adjust dosages and monitor status
  • Communicating with referring providers
  • ProTime/INR testing with immediate results

Talk to your doctor to learn more.

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Keep Your Pacemaker Ticking

As a service to patients with pacemakers and other implanted cardiac devices, we offer a pacemaker/ICD clinic by appointment. Typically we see you twice a year for a pacemaker check. We keep heart devices functioning their best. See us to:

  • Analyze device information
  • Verify battery longevity
  • Test leads to ensure placement
  • Make sure settings are adjusted properly

Talk to your doctor to learn more.

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Get Complete Care for Heart Valve Disease

Our multidisciplinary team works together to diagnose and treat your specific type of heart valve disease. Minimally invasive procedures are available at Sanford Health to care for patients like you, and it takes a team of specialists to help you succeed before, during and after your procedure.

One common heart valve disease is aortic stenosis. Studies show that without an aortic valve replacement (AVR), 50 percent of patients with severe aortic stenosis will not survive more than an average of two years after the onset of symptoms. However, some patients with severe AS are not candidates for open-heart surgery. Now transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an option for inoperable patients.

Talk to your doctor to learn more.

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