Santa Rosa wellness center takes over cardiac rehab program

The Northern California Center for Well Being, a Santa Rosa-based health and wellness center, has taken over ownership and operation of a cardiac rehabilitation program that is key to heart surgery programs at both Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

The move is part of the growing trend toward health care integration and pools economic and professional resources from the nonprofit center, the two hospitals and the Northern California Medical Associates.

“Providing a community-based cardiac rehab resource through the Center for Well Being affords a more sustainable service than if it was offered through a hospital,” said Alena Wall, executive director of the Center for Well Being. “We are meeting the triple aim of providing high-quality, cost-efficient services that are client-centered.”

Wall said that integrating with the three “health care partners” allows the center to remain a primary health education resource.

The program is known as the HeartWorks Cardiac Rehab Center and was started by the Northern California Medical Associates.

The center took over ownership and operation of the program’s Phase 3 and Phase 4 rehabilitation services, which are supervised exercise and education services for heart patients.

But only recently did the center take over Phase 2 services, or monitored cardiac rehabilitation. Phase 2 is a more intensive clinical service that is geared toward patients who have recently had a major cardiac procedure, such as open heart surgery, treatment for a heart attack or coronary stent intervention.

Cardiologists with the Northern California Medical Associates created the Heartworks rehabilitation program 30 years ago. The ?center’s ability to conduct fundraising activities will help offset the cost of running the program, said Dr. Tom Dunlap, ?medical director of the Heartworks program.

“The Center for Well Being, being a nonprofit can go out and raise money,” Dunlap said. “It’s a good system. It’s ?utilized by all of the cardiologists in the city.”

Dunlap was among the cardiologists at NCMA who helped put together the Heartworks program when they saw a strong need for cardiac rehabilitation services on the North Coast. Such services are key to helping heart patients in recovery.

They are also mandated by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. Dunlap said that about 15 years ago, the CMS required that hospitals with surgery centers, such as Memorial and Sutter’s heart and vascular centers, maintain cardiac rehabilitation services.

Both hospital’s contribute funds to the overhead operation of the program, he said. The Center for Well Being will continue to run the Heartworks program from the medical group’s campus at 3536 Mendocino Ave.

In preparation to expand both its cardiac and diabetes services, the Center implemented electronic health records in 2014 to better track patient outcomes, Wall said.

Often when a patient suffers a major cardiac episode, a fear of overexertion sets in, Wall said. The services in the program allow a patient to recover and strengthen their health under intense supervision, alleviating such fears.

“That’s why this environment is so critical,” Wall said.

“We have the heart monitoring equipment, we have the skilled nursing staff. We have the physician at our fingertips.”?NCMA staff will continue to provide clinical services to the program by contract with the Center, which now owns the entire Heartworks program, including the equipment, and pays the rent on the facility. The center is now in charge of patient enrollment and medical billing and also monitors patient metrics under Dunlap’s guidance.

“The key point is that the Center for Well Being has become a much better-run organization in the last few years,” said Dunlap. They’ve done a good job with setting goals and meeting those metrics. I’s a good marriage.”