The clinical management of cardiac rehabilitation

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has pioneered using multidisciplinary teams to attend all aspects of a patient's illness with high levels of professionalism and quality, providing individualized treatment, and negotiating any changes in lifestyle and treatment course. Clinical management transfers the management capacity to professionals, thus avoiding any increase in costs and healthcare spending, which can result in quality losses and less social legitimacy. Modern CR has been configured as the most effective comprehensive cardiovascular prevention strategy and given its preventive nature it must be a part of all cardiovascular health-related processes as a sub-process. Quality of care is the fundamental pillar of healthcare and CR, together with the sustainability of the system. Its improvement allows for better rationalization of resources, reduces costs, and offers safer care focused on the needs of the patient. The definition of the technical competencies of the different professionals (functions of the members of the CR unit) is a necessity both from the point of view of its teaching utility, and from planning and management of health services. For a CR team able to carry out clinical management by the quality and safety processes, it needs members who possess professionalism, leadership, adequate communication, adequate training and knowledge management.