Cardiac Rehabilitation is a fundamental component of the cardiac care continuum and is vital to creating positive and sustainable health outcomes for individuals with heart disease through secondary prevention.

The Northern Alberta Cardiac Rehabilitation Program (NACRP) serves patients from Central Zone and North Zone, northern British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The NACRP functions out of two main sites: the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital and the Jim Pattison Centre for Heart Health located in the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute.

The NACRP sees both medical and surgical cardiac patients.

Patients in cardiac rehabilitation have the ability to work with a team of multidisciplinary professionals that include:

• Cardiologists
• Nurse Practitioners
• Registered Nurses
• Pharmacists
• Occupational Therapists
• Exercise Specialists
• Cardiology Technicians
• Dietitians
• Social Workers
• Psychologists

Team members work with patients and families to understand how best to lead an active and healthy lifestyle through focusing on diet, supervised exercise sessions, and other cardiovascular risk reduction activities.

Patients are able to participate in full programming at both the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital and the Jim Pattison Centre for Heart Health located at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. During a patient’s hospital journey, referral and program information for the NACRP is discussed and patients may leave the hospital with an appointment for cardiac rehabilitation. The goal for all programs is to assist participants in acquiring the skills needed to get back to everyday life after a cardiac event and maintain a heart-healthy lifestyle.

The Cardiac Rehabilitation Team will work with each patient to find a program that is best suited to their needs. Regular program options are:

Your Journey Back to Health (8 weeks)
The patient will work the multidisciplinary team in all aspects of recovery, including diet, supervised exercise sessions and other strategies to reduce your cardiac risks and to help you lead an active, healthy life.

Fast Track (2 weeks)
Similar to Your Journey Back to Health, Fast Track covers all recovery aspects but in a more condensed format to accommodate patients that live out town or are returning to work.

One Stop Shop (1 to 3 days)
A short but intensive program that provides assessment and education on a variety of aspects of physical, emotional, and social needs to ensure a heart healthy lifestyle.

Community Program
Similar to Your Journey Back to Health; however, this program offers the opportunity to do supervised exercise sessions at a city facility which would include a discounted facility membership pass.

Specialized programs are also an option for patients that meet the criteria for admission.

Pre-habilitation Program
Patients scheduled for coronary artery bypass surgery may be eligible for cardiac rehabilitation prior to the operation. These patients are offered tailored exercise sessions and education sessions, including a class focused solely on pre-operative education, which are aimed at improving the patient’s pre-operative functional capacity and psychological status, and to condition the patient with the goal to improve post-operative outcomes and engage patients in active health self-management.

Community Integration
Alberta Health Services has partnered with the City of Edmonton to create a community-based exercise program for the growing number of cardiac patients living in the capital region. This program has been developed in an effort to provide a safe, accessible community option for patients in the Edmonton Zone which will assist in creating an adherence to lifelong exercise and healthy lifestyle.

Cardio – Oncology
A cardiac rehabilitation program for eligible autologous/bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients to improve quality of life immediately post autologous/BMT and reduce cardiac toxicity long term.

Telehealth
Group patient education classes provide specialized education classes for patients while building capacity for front line rural clinicians. For patients that live outside the Edmonton Zone or have difficulty traveling for appointments in Edmonton, telehealth appointments are offered with multidisciplinary team members, furthering the accessibility of our program throughout Alberta.