Our team of cardiac specialists can help on your path to recovery.

Tahoe Forest Health System is pleased to be the first location in California to offer the Pritikin Intensive Cardiac Rehab program.

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Tahoe Forest Heart to Heart – A Pritikin Intensive Cardiac Rehab Program

Are you recovering from a cardiac event?

Pritikin Intensive Cardiac Rehab is a Medicare-approved, comprehensive lifestyle program designed specifically for patients recovering from a cardiovascular disease-related event, such as a heart attack or surgery.

Tahoe Forest Heart to Heart can help on your path to recovery.

  • Improve your strength and quality of life
  • Learn skills that will help you commit to a new, healthier lifestyle
  • Work with a rehab team consisting of experts in exercise, nutrition, and stress management
  • Develop a plan to reduce heart disease through healthy cooking classes and nutrition workshops
  • Monitor your progress and achieve your wellness goals

For more information about the Heart to Heart program, please call (530) 582-3478.

Empowering Recovery Through Cardiac Rehabilitation

Hi, my name is Christine Teittinen, RN, and lead nurse at Tahoe Forest Health System. In cardiac rehab, we have a robust cardiac rehab program at the hospital. Patients are referred to us when they have a heart event. A heart event could be a heart attack, a valve repair, open heart surgery, a coronary artery bypass graft, or a lung-heart transplant.

Our patients go through a 12-week program. They have 18 weeks to complete a 12-week program, and it is intensive. It is three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. That involves an hour of exercise where they are on a cardiac monitor. We have a nurse, myself or my PRN nurse, monitoring their heart rate and rhythm while they are exercising and managing how they are looking and how they are feeling. We also have an exercise physiologist who runs them through a variety of cardio and strength training apparatuses.

The other part of our program is our patients go through an education class in addition to the exercise. So, three days a week, they are getting a ton of information about heart-healthy nutrition, healthy mindset, and exercises they can do on their own outside of cardiac rehab.

They have a ton of fun. They have a community of people they can share their fears with, their experiences, and just have that feeling of not being alone. I feel so grateful to have this job. I get to watch people get better. I get to see people’s enthusiasm for life and their willingness to keep on going and live the best life they possibly can.

Again, my name is Christine. I am the lead nurse in cardiac rehab. Thank you so much for joining me.

Christine Teittinen, RN and lead nurse at Tahoe Forest Health System, shares insights about their cardiac rehabilitation program. Patients referred to cardiac rehab, often after a heart attack, surgery, or transplant, engage in a 12-week program with monitored exercise and education.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a combination exercise and education program. Our goal is to assist those with lung disease to achieve their highest level of functioning and improve their quality of life. Pulmonary rehabilitation is staffed by registered nurses with experience in cardiopulmonary disease and chronic illness. Please call us to see if this program is right for you.

For more information about Pulmonary Rehab, please call (530) 582-3478.