Operational and staffing cost efficiencies Patients in One Stop Post Op™ are cared for by nurses with advanced critical assessment skills and cardiovascular recovery care experience who are prepared to identify post-op complications and address care needs earlier. Problems are identified and resolved quickly with all members of team understanding their role. The One Stop Post Op™ facilitates continuous quality enhancement in one setting. Staffing is flexed to optimize resources and can be adjusted every four hours.

Continuous communication Due to specialized nature of post operative open heart surgery care and need for a dedicated care team, care givers share a common goal and have constant opportunity to dialogue. The patient is not moved and same nurses, physicians, and support staff care for them during their entire stay. Active family communication and involvement is a corner stone of this delivery system, making patient and their family focus of all activity. The patient and family receive education from same staff that is administering post operative care. They are encouraged to question therapies and treatments and are involved in care decisions through out patient hospital stay.

Active family involvement The One Stop Post Op™ unit fosters an environment centered on patient and family. Family visiting is open and supported with rooms optimally designed to address this unit’s approach. The family is included in pre-operative teaching and continues to be an active participant in educational process through patient discharge. Interactions with familiar nursing staff promote active communication. The families have also found that surgeons are frequently in unit and available to discuss patient’s recovery process and answer their questions.

Employee ownership Another unique feature of The One Stop Post Op™ model is that it creates an empowering environment, which fosters ownership. The nursing and ancillary staff assigned to these units tend to refer to OHS patients as “our patients”. The opportunities for bonding between staff, patients and families are extraordinary. Medical direction provides for a defined understanding of duties and responsibilities so that unit performance expectations are clear and achievable for caregivers.

Clinical expertise The nursing care provided in The One Stop Post Op™ cardiovascular unit is highly specialized. Nurses who traditionally worked in short term recovery units are caring for patients through out their hospital stay and are encouraged to approach patients from a holistic platform. Caregivers interact with patients and families through continuum of care and are able to appreciate success of patient discharge. Nurses with critical care skills provide care at all levels. This expertise provides opportunity for extraordinary trust between physicians, patients, families and ancillary staff. Complications are recognized quickly by nursing staff and timely response can prevent compromise to patient’s condition.

Distinguish your program from competition The traditional care delivery method of transferring patients based on acuity is utilized by most facilities nationwide. By implementing One Stop Post Op™ approach to open heart surgery recovery, hospitals can offer differentiated and distinguish care. Reduced length of stay and exemplary clinical outcomes are benchmarks of a successful program that will be attractive to community and payors of healthcare. The satisfaction achieved by patients and stakeholders will clearly set this type of open-heart surgery program apart from others.

Remember, heart is a muscle, so do your aerobic exercise. And as a bonus, calories burned will help you achieve your goals faster.

If you're already lean enough, you could cut down on aerobic exercise to 2-3 times a week.

If you hate aerobic exercise (like sitting on a stationary bike), do what I do. Use this time to read a book or magazine you enjoy. You'll be amazed at how quick 30 minutes is over.

---------------------------- 3) Weight Training ----------------------------

Weight Training is extremely important because:

1) It builds muscle 2) Alters your body composition

I recommend training with weights 2 times per week, up to a maximum of 3 times per week. You can split body up into 2 parts and do half one day, and other half 3-4 days later.

Do exercises such as Squats, Bench Presses, Overhead Presses, Dips, Chin-Ups, Lat Pulldowns, and Deadlifts.

These basic, free weight exercises will pack on more calorie-burning muscle than any machine ever could. They will also help you build muscle fastest.

By performing exercises that involve large muscle groups, you are recruiting more muscle fibers when you lift, which will ultimately lead to better muscle gains for you.

Remember that every pound of muscle you gain, will burn calories just by existing. That is if you gain 5 lbs of muscle, you will burn extra calories EVERY DAY because that muscle needs nutrients to live.

So guess what? You can eat more and NOT gain weight. So do your weight training.

------------ 4) Rest ------------

This last factor is one that most often overlooked.

If all you do is lift weights, do aerobic exercise, and not sleep or rest much, you will quickly overtrain, and build up a lot of stress and completely stop your progress.

You'll be eating right, lifting hard, doing aerobic exercise, but if you get 4 hrs of sleep a night, you are wasting your time.

The body needs to rest. It's during this rest that your body will repair itself and get stronger. Please DO NOT short-circuit this process. Get AT LEAST 7-8 hrs sleep per night.

It will do WONDERS for your progress and FAT LOSS.

Follow 4 Critical Factors I explained above and you will be well on your way to achieving DREAM BODY you've always wanted.

Good Luck with all your Fatloss & Fitness Goals!

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Tony Tass is author of best-selling book "How to Get Dream Body You've Always Wanted in 12 Short Weeks or Less!" - a complete system to turn your dreams into reality! Go to: http://www.dreambodynow.com now and also get a FREE Fatloss Mini-Course!

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(c) 2001 Waterdown Publishing,

Tony Tass is the author of the best-selling book "How to Get the Dream Body You've Always Wanted in 12 Short Weeks or Less!" - a complete system to turn your dreams into reality! Go to: http://www.dreambodynow.com now and also get a FREE Fatloss Mini-Course!