Cardiac Exercise Physiologist

Cardiac Exercise Physiologist

Requirements

• Master’s degree in exercise physiology, kinesiology, nursing or a similar field.
• Completion of a three to six month internship or equivalent work experience working with cardiopulmonary patients and their families.
• Basic Life Support (BLS) Healthcare Provider certification.
• American College of Sports Medicine Clinical Exercise Physiologist certification upon hire or within one year of employment.
• Knowledge of cardiology, disease processes, multi-organ disease issues, and pharmacology as it relates to exercise.
• Proficiency in 12-lead EKG interpretation and cardiac arrhythmia recognition.
• Competency in blood pressure, lipids, diabetes, smoking cessation, weight management, psychosocial assessment/plan development/reassessment and symptom evaluation.
• Competency in patient assessment skills such as blood pressure measurement, pulse taking, telemetry, pulse oximetry, blood glucose assessment and body composition.

Responsibilities

• Supervise all stress testing in the inpatient and outpatient setting.
• Review history and physical (H&P) for test appropriateness.
• Recognize contraindications to exercise and abnormal patient responses to exercise.
• Respond appropriately to all situations including exercise cessation and referral to medical professionals.
• Perform additional physiologic assessments as required (i.e. cardiopulmonary testing, PFTs, oximetry, ammonia PET studies, etc.).
• Be responsible for coding daily procedures using current Medicare CPT and ICD10 guidelines.
• Provide inpatient (Phase I) and outpatient (Phase II and maintenance) cardiac rehabilitation services to a variety of cardiovascular conditions.
• Provide patient testing before and after rehabilitation including strength, body composition, flexibility, balance and endurance.
• Provide exercise prescriptions for patients utilizing test data, patient status and current medication regimen.
• Update prescriptions according to patient response.
• Implement concepts of cardiac secondary prevention.
• Develop and/or update cardiac rehab participants’ Individual Treatment Plans.
• Provide exercise, cardiovascular health promotion and behavior change strategy information for patients, peers and the community which may include public speaking and education classes.
• Arrange for initial outpatient cardiac rehab evaluation, recurring outpatient cardiac rehab sessions and discharge from the program.

Preferred Qualifications

No preferred qualifications provided.