Cardiac rehab unit celebrates 30th anniversary at CCCH

    Cindy Arterburn, department director of the cardiac rehabilitation unit at Chase County Community Hospital (CCCH), saw a need 30 years ago for an additional cardiac rehab unit in western Nebraska.
    “There was only one available in this part of Nebraska,” Arterburn said, “and that was in North Platte.”
    Prior to 1988, Arterburn was working at a hospital in Holyoke, Colorado, as an RN on the floor, plus part-time in the cardiac rehab unit there.
    She had an opportunity to attend a week-long training in Denver on how to start a cardiac rehab unit program.
    This was the first step in the fulfillment of a goal to provide western Nebraska with a second choice for an acute care and maintenance program for patients following a cardiac event, she said.
    The CCH cardiac rehab unit opened in August 1988 with their first patient, she said. Arterburn has been its only director the past 30 years.
    The first stress test was performed in January 1989.
    The cardiac rehab unit averages about 300 patient visits a month, said Arterburn.
    “Some of our current patients in the maintenance phase have been coming for 17 years,” she added.
    “After acute care programs, we can then provide very effective, ongoing maintenance programs customized for each cardiac patient at minimal cost,” said Kathy Loring, RN and part-time cardiac rehab nurse.

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