WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest University Cardiac Rehabilitation Program, the first such program in North Carolina and one of the first in the nation, has relocated to the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
The Cardiac Rehabilitation Program joins the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program, which recently relocated from CompRehab Plaza, 131 Miller St. While both programs will occupy the same space, each will operate at different hours serving distinctly different populations.
The outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program is the second phase of treatment for people recovering from heart attack, heart surgery or other heart-related illnesses. Participants meet three times a week for 12 weeks for exercise and education about nutrition, stress management, heart medications and other topics to help them adopt a healthier lifestyle and promote recovery from their heart disease.
The first phase, for inpatients, comes during the patient’s admission for a heart attack or immediately after their cardiac intervention or surgery.
A multidisciplinary program, the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program offers heart patients the services of a team of experts under the direction of cardiologist Killian C. Robinson, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The staff includes:
• Cardiac RNs.
• Respiratory therapists.
• Exercise physiologists.
• Dietitians.
• Psychologists
Also, cardiology fellows provide patients and families with brief lectures and updates on cardiac diseases and treatments.
“Having all of these services at the Medical Center under one roof will allow us to offer a high standard of cardiac rehabilitation care and disease prevention,” said Robinson.
The Cardiac Rehabilitation Program had been associated with the Health and Exercise Science Department at Wake Forest for the past 29 years. It began in 1975 through a grant from the American Heart Association to Paul M. Ribisl, Ph.D., chairman of health and exercise science, and cardiologist Henry S. Miller, Jr., M.D., professor emeritus, Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
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Media Contacts: Jim Steele, jsteele@wfubmc.edu, Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu, or Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, at 336-716-4587.
About Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center: Wake Forest Baptist is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. It is licensed to operate 1,282 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.