Recommended Guidelines for Cardiac Maintenance lpar;Phase IVrpar; ProgramsA Position Paper by the North Carolina Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Association

摘要

Once patients have completed traditional Phase Ihyphen;III cardiac rehabilitation programs, many choose to participate in a Phase IV or cardiac maintenance program lpar;CMPrpar; for continued cardiovascular risk intervention. Risk stratification formats, published by the American College of Sports Medicine lpar;ACSMrpar;, American College of Physicians lpar;ACPrpar;, American Heart Association lpar;AHArpar;, and American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation lpar;AACVPRrpar;, have assisted health professionals with decisions regarding patient advancement to CMPs. However, CMPs have been controversial regarding degree of patient monitoring, supervision, and followhyphen;up. To promote continuity of CMPs in North Carolina, a special task force of the North Carolina Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Association has developed guidelines for structure and operation of CMPs statewide. These guidelines provide minimum standards in the areas ofcolon; 1rpar; admission criteriasemi; 2rpar; discharge criteriasemi; 3rpar; supervisionsemi; 4rpar; qualification and composition of staffsemi; 5rpar; emergency equipmentsol;drillssemi; 6rpar; testingsol;evaluationsemi; 7rpar; exercise therapy formatsemi; 8rpar; exercise records and progress reportssemi; and 9rpar; coordination with the cardiac rehabilitation program. Monitoring and supervision recommendations have been developed for both medically and nonmedically supervised programs. With proper testing, supervision, exercise prescription and patient followhyphen;up, CMP participants may exercise with greater safety and selfhyphen;efficacy.