Feasibility of a multi-state outcomes program for cardiopulmonary rehabilitation.

BACKGROUND Outcomes validate program performance and patient benefits received from cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation. However, outcomes have little meaning without test standardization and the ability to benchmark data with other programs. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the feasibility for measuring standardized outcomes in a large number of rehabilitation programs. METHODS The subjects included 928 cardiac patients and 222 pulmonary patients from 35 cardiac and 31 pulmonary rehabilitation programs. The SF-36 Health Survey, patient knowledge test, and 6-minute distance walk were administered before and after completion of the rehabilitation program. The patients completed rehabilitation according to the program guidelines at their respective site. RESULTS Significant (P < 0.05) improvements were demonstrated for cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation in each of the eight health concepts within the SF-36. In addition, patient knowledge and distance walked significantly (P < 0.05) improved for both cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS Although this study does not document the effectiveness of rehabilitation for patients, it does demonstrate that the collection and analysis of standardized outcomes among many cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation sites is feasible.