Business of the Week – PMC Cardiac Rehabilitation

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Be sure to read The Prowers Journal each week when the Lamar Chamber of Commerce
and The Prowers Journal highlight a featured Business of the Week.

This week we are proud to spotlight PMC Cardiac Rehabilitation
Give them a call at: 719.336-6731

Prowers Medical Center has been a vital part of our community for many years. There are many great departments within this organization but today we are focusing on the Cardiopulmonary Department and their newest addition of Cardiac Rehabilitation. We feel this newest program helps us to live up to our mission to provide healing and preventative services to our community. Cardiac rehab is a professionally supervised program to help people recover from heart attacks, heart surgery and other procedures such as stent placement and angioplasty. Our Cardiac Rehab program provides education and counseling services to help heart patients increase physical fitness, reduce cardiac symptoms, improve health and reduce the risk of future heart problems, including heart attack.

The Cardiac Rehab Department began this journey with a desire to provide a service to our local community that was currently unavailable. In fact, the nearest Cardiac or Pulmonary Rehab program was over 200 miles away in all directions. So in March 2010, we began with the completion of a grant application through the Caring for Colorado Foundation which seeks to improve the health and healthcare of the people of Colorado. In July of that year, we received word that we had been awarded $50,000 in funding to help with the establishment of a Cardiac and also Pulmonary Rehab program for our community. The monies were then matched by Prowers Medical Center and used to purchase exercise equipment, cardiac telemetry and other needed equipment as well as training for our local staff. For the next several months, we developed policies, trained staff and ordered equipment. Finally, in October of 2010 we began our first classes for Pulmonary Rehab. Cardiac Rehab was able to begin a year later in November 2011. It took a bit longer to get Cardiac Rehab started as we coordinated efforts to order the final cardiac telemetry equipment and sought training for our staff.

Our Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab departments are staffed by a great group of professionals that include Registered Nurses (Tracy Williams, Missy Salisbury, Stephanie Martinson, Toni Rohr, and Leslie Day), Respiratory Therapists (Callie Gadash, Heather Howes, and Jeanna Warman), Registered Dietician (Barbara Gamble) and other Support Staff (Connie Gangwish). The programs are under the medical direction of Dr. Karen Chase.

So far, we have provided services to approximately 75 patients between the Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab programs. We have witnessed many great accomplishments and success stories. Our time in the gym with our patients is usually filled with lots of conversation, laughing, and of course, lots of hard work to get our patients back into living life to its fullest. Here are some of their stories:

“After my heart surgery earlier this year, I had to take Cardiac Rehab and took them at PMC. I found all of the personnel to be very professional and also a loving, caring group of people. The instructors were very professional and knew what they were doing, but were able to also make the sessions fun. I would highly recommend PMC Cardiac Rehab to anybody needing that kind of rehab. I have nothing but good to say about PMC, everybody was so good to me and seemed sincerely concerned about me and my health.” Betty Clark

“After I had a heart attack and was flown out to Colorado Springs on Flight for Life, I spent a week in Memorial Hospital. When we came back to Lamar, the very first week I was back home, the girls at Cardiac Rehab at PMC called and told me of their rehab program. I really did not know it existed. My wife and I decided it would be a good idea so I said I would try it out. Knowing what I know now, I would not hesitate to encourage anyone who has a heart condition to go through the program.

You can strengthen your heart in a safe and controlled environment. I knew I needed that but would not push myself. This was controlled and I was on a monitor the whole time and being watched by two very nice and competent nurses. They made me feel very comfortable and confident about it all. Now that I am done with the program, I have continued with this exercise at home on my own.

Thank you to all the Ladies at Cardiac Rehab!” Darrell E. Pool

The Cardiopulmonary Department has experienced a lot of growth and service enhancements in the last couple of years. The newest addition is the ability to provide routine Pacemaker and Internal Cardiac Defibrillator (ICD) checks. These checks are typically conducted every 3 – 6 months depending on your type of device implant. Many people in the community appreciate being able to get their devices checked locally and still be able to have their information sent to their current Cardiologists.

For any further information on these programs please come see us at 401 Kendall Drive or give us a call at 719-336-6731.