TABLE 5.

Recommended wait time benchmarks for elective cardiac rehabilitation by diagnosis in days

Diagnostic category	Preferable	Acceptable
CABG/valvular disease*	21–30	30–60
Percutaneous coronary intervention†	2–7	7–60
MI/CHF/stable and unstable angina‡	7–30	30–60
Heart transplantation§	4–10	10–60
Arrhythmias¶	1–30	30–60

^*Physical issues (sternotomy) may prevent these patients from beginning exercise earlier, but all other aspects of cardiac rehabilitation could start immediately;

^†These patients tend to return to work, and ‘normal duties’ shortly after the procedure;

^‡These patients likely need to be seen earlier because there may be more significant medical, vocational and social decisions required.

^§If the cardiac rehabilitation team is seeing the patients for early mobilization post-transplant, they need to be seen as soon as possible. Often these patients may be from out of town;

^¶Urgency likely reflects the psychosocial sequelae (see above discussions). ‘Acceptable’ time reflects the overall median wait time of 69 days seen in The Ontario Cardiac Rehabilitation Pilot Project undertaken by the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario. It is assumed that this wait time represents an acceptable wait time because patients improved during this study, and this time reflected a real-world experience with a large cohort of patients; CABG Coronary artery bypass graft surgery, CHF Chronic heart failure; MI Myocardial infarction; ‘Preferable’ time reflects the wait time in some of the guidelines used by various programs