Where is the Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) programme offered?
Format
In general, hospital-linked or healthcare-linked CR programmes are more commonly used in the Western and Northern part of Europe, programmes at specialised institutions are more widespread in the Eastern countries, whereas Southern European countries provide both alternatives.
Out-patient model
In the majority of the reporting countries, phase II was available only as an outpatient service. Well described examples can be found in Ireland, Portugal, Malta, Slovakia, Italy, United Kingdom and Belgium.
In-patient model
In Iceland and Germany, both inpatient and outpatient options are available according to patients’ preference, whereas in France and Croatia inpatient rehabilitation is only offered to post-surgical or high-risk patients in particular. Mainly in-patient models are reported from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Russia.
CR at home
With the assistance of telephone and/or computer monitoring programmes have been designed for CR at home (United Kingdom, Lithuania and Belgium) but this option is still fairly uncommon.
Note: The content of this article reflects the personal opinion of the author/s and is not necessarily the official position of the European Society of Cardiology.
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