Understanding and practice: a 7-year follow-up study on implementation of a cardiac rehabilitation program

The authors explore the perspectives of managers, health care professionals, and patients on a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation program. Using qualitative methodology, they compare and analyze results from individual interviews and two conceptual modeling seminars held 7 years apart. Professionals and managers understood their own tasks in a professional-centered way that did not include the client's perspective. Patients believed they were not seen in their whole context. Initially, health care organization was fragmented, lacking clear leadership, coordination, and communication between levels of care. However, lack of common understandings of structure, process, and outcome in cardiac rehabilitation services hampered the implementation of program changes.