WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester is reopening two outpatient services in the coming weeks.
Hospital officials announced Wednesday that they will be reopening cardiac rehabilitation and pulmonary rehabilitation after closing them back in August due to staffing challenges.
“Our cardiac rehab and pulmonary rehab programs are instrumental in improving quality of life for many of our patients, and we are thrilled to be able to reopen them,” said Saint Vincent Chief Executive Officer Carolyn Jackson. “We look forward to restarting these programs because previous participants were thrilled with both the quality of the experience and the compassion of our teams.”
Cardiac rehabilitation is a 12-week program that helps patients get up and moving after a heart attack or heart procedure, hospital officials said. In this medically prescribed and supervised program, cardiovascular rehab specialists offer education, supervised physical activity, and counseling to patients after hospitalization so their overall health improves as their heart recovers.
Pulmonary rehabilitation is a seven- to 10-week outpatient program designed to help patients return to the activities of daily living with less shortness of breath, often following a recent hospitalization related to a respiratory condition, hospital officials added. Patients receive education, respiratory medication, stress management, nutrition counseling, and monitored exercise sessions.
“The reopening of these services is a starting point, and we look forward to opening more services as we move back towards normal operations,” Jackson said.
Nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital were on strike for more than 300 days before voting on a contract that ended the strike earlier this month.
The strike was the longest nurses’ strike nationally in over 15 years and the longest nurses’ strike in Mass. history.
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