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North Adams BMC Adds Cardiac Rehabilitation to Medical Services
By Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
01:11AM / Thursday, January 19, 2017
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Exercise machines are ready for patients in the new BMC cardiac rehabilitation program at the North Adams Campus.

Anne Marie Sadlowski speaks with former patient David Clark and his wife, Anne.

Kelley Weider, left, director of cardiac rehab, exercise specialist Brianna Broderick, and registered nurses Mary Richardson and Karen Kradel at Wednesday's open house at Berkshire Specialty Practices in North Adams.

Mary Richardson poses with tabletop exercise machines specialized for the arms.

Wednesday also featured the open for Northern Berkshire Specialty Practices of BMC, located on the first floor.



Kelley Weider, director of cardiac rehab, speaks about the benefits of the program.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Berkshire Health Systems has added cardiac rehabilitation program to the host of services that are now being provided at North Adams Campus of Berkshire Medical Center.

The program, hosted in the new Northern Berkshire Specialty Practices of BMC on the first floor of the main building, opens on Thursday offering North County residents easier access to rehabilitation services. The announcement was made Wednesday at an open house event to show off the new suites and reception area for the specialty practices that opened last fall.

"We have people after they've had a heart attack, stent or a bypass, they come to us to back on their feet," said Kelley Weider, a registered nurse and director of cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation at BMC. "We get them exercise, education, help modify some risk factors, so that they can feel confident they've reduced their future risk for having another event."

The program runs three days a week for eight to 10 weeks and can accommodate 24 up to patients a week through doctor referral. Each session lasts about an hour and participants can use one or more of the exercise machines — treadmill, cycle, a recumbent cycle and a Magneciser or arm exerciser. Each patient works off an individualized plan with monitored exercise, education and counseling.

Cardiac patients had to drive to the main BMC campus in Pittsfield to receive services since they have never been available in North Adams.

"They had to drive to Pittsfield three days a week and that's a lot for some of our folks," Weider said. "There were a fair amount who probably weren't doing it, that had declined to come, which is unfortunate because they weren't getting the service they really could use."

About a third of current patients - about eight or nine - that were going to Pittsfield have already scheduled time in North Adams and a few more have been waiting for the office to open rather than go to Pittsfield. "It was definitely a needed resource," she said.

At least two RNs, a rehabilitation assistant and exercise specialist staff the program and a dietician is available for consults. Karen Kradel, also a registered nurse, said having the program within the specialties office, which Cardiology Professional Services of BMC, has a "nice connectivity."

"It develops a really good relationship," Kradel said. "That's how it felt in Pittsfield and it's been extremely successful. We're starting to look at offering other testing. ...

"We hope anybody who had an event will be more apt to come now that there's a closer program for them to come to."

Northern Berkshire Specialty Practices brings several BMC physician practices including Cardiology Professional Services of BMC; Endocrinology & Metabolism of BMC and BHS Diabetes Education; Hematology Oncology Services of BMC; the Pain Diagnosis & Treatment Center of BMC; and Urology Professional Services of BMC, all under one roof to make it easier for patients to access services.  

Kradel said follow-up rehabilitation are important to maintaining health and that the outcomes of the program "are so amazing."

"Anybody you talk to who goes through the program has great things to say about it," she said. "How much better they feel."

That's true for David Clark of Adams, who calls himself the poster boy for the program.

"I've got nothing but good to say about the program and I've been through it three times in 20 years," he said. It's inspired him to keep up his exercise routine. "It's a personal decision that I realized I had to keep doing this instead of backsliding."

While the program was beneficial, the trip to Pittsfield three times a week was not so great, said his wife, Anne, who had to drive him during that time and would have trouble finding parking and something to do.

The nurses laughed that there is plenty of close parking at North Adams facility. And they hope that the opening of the program here will encourage North County patients to take advantage of rehabilitation services.

"Heart disease does a number not just physically but emotionally," said Anne Marie Sadlowski, RN. "It's just helpful to know 'I can do this stuff, because I do it in rehab and I'm fine.'"

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