Outcomes 2016 - Baylor Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital FY 2016 | Page 58

Cardiac Rehabilitation
Long recognized as a leader in its work with post-treatment cardiac patients, the cardiac rehabilitation team at
Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital’s Walter I. Berman Cardiovascular Prevention and
Cardiac Rehabilitation Center is revolutionizing approaches to care.
A new formula for success features innovative metrics captured
during the initial rehab session including measuring the
degrees of shoulder abduction in sternotomy patients using the
inclinometer, previous occupational or activities of daily living
requirements, and the individual patient’s goals for recovery.
Using this information, the experts on the Baylor Hamilton
Heart and Vascular Hospital cardiac rehab team collaborate
to create a plan of care that focuses on improving the patient’s
overall wellbeing to help him or her achieve stated goals and
return to as normal a life as possible. “Working with sternotomy patients for more than 20 years has
taught us the traditional post-surgery movement restrictions,
including a limit on the amount of weight that patients can
lift, can result in reduced shoulder abduction and limited
movement which can impact the ability of patients to achieve
their maximum goals,” explains Adams. “Patients perform
specific movements and the screening methodology helps our
team identify any movement deficiencies. The inclinometer
allows us to document exact degrees of shoulder flexibility and
establish a baseline against which we measure progress.”
“We’ve taken a proactive approach with our cardiac rehab
patients,” says Jenny Adams, PhD, senior research associate.
“Our goal is to have each patient leave the program in a
healthier state than when he or she first came to us.” Adams says the initial patient assessment includes the use of a
finometer to record continuous heart rate and blood pressure
readings which may allow patients to perform high-intensity
exercise while maintaining a rate-pressure product, defined as
peak heart rate x peak systolic blood pressure, under the safety
threshold of 36,000.
To achieve this mission, each patient completes a Functional
Movement Screen, including the assessment with the
inclinometer by FMS certified exercise physiologists.
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