University of Maryland 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 the patient’s family – receives a personalized plan of education, detailing the patient’s specific health issues, suggested exercise and other things 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, monitored exercise program and 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 rehab patients.
“The most important benefit of the entire program is the overall physical and emotional support we provide,” said Sherrie Hill, RN, MSN, who oversees the program in Chestertown, and has been with the program since its inception in 1994. “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.”
There were no tears present recently at the Chestertown facility where two patients – Shirley Dorsey of Kennedyville and Marie Orem of Fairlee – worked out on the various exercise equipment while alternately groaning, grinning and sharing news with Wendy Barnette, RN, who has been with the program for three years.
“We encourage a very positive and healthy lifestyle to improve the overall quality of life for all our participants,” Barnette 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 program’s success. Although some patients are in their 50s and younger, who 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.”
As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,500 employees, medical staff, board members, and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.
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