94-Year-Old Heart Patient Benefits from Genesis Cardiac Rehab 
(Posted 2/27/06) 

Three times a week, 94-year-old Sarah Zubatsky of Bettendorf climbs on a treadmill and does her heart a favor:  She attends a Genesis cardiac rehabilitation class.

"I can go 25 minutes on the treadmill if my legs don't give out," jokes Zubatsky, who has been in cardiac rehab for more than a decade.  

Despite her age, she has the motivation and smarts to do what a majority of Americans with heart ailments do not:  Only 10-20 percent of the 2 million patients a year who experience a heart attack or undergo procedures for coronary artery disease participate in cardiac rehabilitation, says the American Heart Association. 

On the heels of Cardiac Rehab Week, Genesis Heart Institute officials stress the benefits of rehabilitation for anyone who has undergone a cardiac procedure.  Patients from Genesis' Davenport and Illini campuses made 72,430 visits to cardiac rehab last year. 

"A startling number of patients think that they are fixed after they have bypass surgery or stents," says Shauna Roberts, M.D., Medical Director of the Genesis Heart Institute.  "Often, people don't understand that this is a chronic disease that they will have for as long as they live.  We can improve their survival, but we need them to do everything they can do to improve their own longer-term outcomes." 

Getting patients to enroll in cardiac rehabilitation and take medication helps with "secondary prevention," or reducing the risk of future heart attacks, sudden death or reoccurring coronary artery disease. 

Secondary Prevention
"We have become so efficient at angioplasties and placing stents that sometimes people go home from the hospital as soon as the next day feeling that they do not have to make heart-healthy lifestyle changes," says Karen Doy, Supervisor of Cardiac Rehabilitation at Genesis, Davenport.  "We help them understand that heart disease is a chronic condition and support them as they work through the process." 

The program at Genesis, Davenport, is among the largest in the country, with approximately 300 patients actively enrolled in Phase II, Phase III, and Phase IV rehabilitation.  Phase I begins while a patient is still hospitalized.  Phase II is for patients in the first few months of post-hospitalization, and Phase III is a maintenance program of education classes, exercise and heart monitoring.  Phase IV patients exercise with Phase III patients but are not monitored as intensely. 

Zubatsky exercises in the 12,000-square-foot Genesis Wellness Center, located inside the Bettendorf Family YMCA, where Phase III and Phase IV Cardiac Rehab are united into a new, state-of-the-art facility. 

Genesis Illini Campus in Silvis has on-site Phase II cardiac rehabilitation, too.  In a unique venture, it also offers the People Utilizing Life-Saving Exercise, or PULSE, program at the Two Rivers YMCA in Moline.  The PULSE program isn't just for heart patients.  Older adults, women and people at increased risk of developing heart disease can benefit from the medically supervised program, too. 

"The mission is prevention - keeping people well and out of the hospital," says Shari Gall, R.N., Illini Campus' Manager of the Intensive Care Unit and Cardiac Rehab.  

Genesis, Davenport's program also encourages participants to take a lifetime approach to their heart health.  Spouses or a family member can exercise side-by-side with Phase III and IV participants for a reduced monthly fee.  Phase III and Phase IV participants can enjoy a free adult or senior membership to the Scott County Family Y. 

The fact that cardiac rehabilitation offers a network of support for patients also is key.  The shared experience of going through a cardiac event bonds patients to each other. 

"The camaraderie benefits them, and they share stories about how they coped with whatever cardiac event they had," Gall says.  "Some of our patients will joke, 'We exercise our mouths more than we exercise our bodies,' but that interaction is very important." 

-- Story by Linda Barlow, Genesis