Cardiac Inpatient Rehabilitation

When it comes to caring for your heart, cardiac rehabilitation is not an afterthought. It begins while you are still a patient in The Heart Institute at Bridgeport Hospital. Clinicians from Bridgeport Hospital and the Ahlbin Rehabilitation Centers Medicine will help you get up and moving not long after your procedure. They will help you start walking and give your exercises to help you to breath correctly. You will learn which activities you can and cannot safely undertake in the days immediately after you go home.

A nutrition professional from the Food and Nutrition Services will visit with you and give you guidelines for a heart-healthy diet.

Your nurse will give you information about your medications when you go home, as well as add information on your specific cardiac condition, so you understand what has happened and how to keep it from happening again. You'll receive the "Passport to Health," which will outline your specific cardiac risk factors and provide you with goals and resources to help you improve your health.

But cardiac rehabilitation doesn't end when you go home from the hospital. Bridgeport Hospital's Healthy Heart Program (formerly Outpatient Cardiac Rehab) is a three-month program to help you improve your health and fitness through exercise and lifestyle changes. You will learn the skills needed to keep up an ongoing routine of healthy diet and exercise to help prevent the chance of another cardiac event.