Quality at NHRMC

In 2015, NHRMC Orthopedic Hospital received a 5-star rating from Healthgrades.com for the 12th consecutive year for its knee replacement program. Healthgrades evaluates Medicare patient records to discern hospital quality.

It recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for:

• Cohort-specific performance
• Specialty area performance
• Overall clinical quality

At New Hanover Regional Medical Center, we strive to continually find ways of cutting heart attack treatment times to give patients the best chance at a full recovery. The Code STEMI program is at the center of this mission. STEMI stands for ST Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction. "Myocardial infarction," or MI, is the clinical term for heart attacks.

NHRMC Heart Center works in collaboration with hospitals and paramedics around the region to perform EKGs, recognize a STEMI and immediately activate the Code STEMI protocol. By doing so, they set in motion a series of steps at NHRMC. Cardiac and Emergency teams are activated, the catheterization labs are prepared, and the equipment is ready for the patient to be moved to treatment on arrival.

Recognition Criteria

NHRMC received the AHA Mission: Lifeline Gold Plus Award by:

• Receiving at least nine STEMI patients per quarter
• Achieving 85 percent or greater composite score on eight achievement measures, ranging from treatment times to discharge protocol
• Having no single measure below 75 percent on the achievement measures
• Maintaining that standard for two consecutive years
• Achieving first door-to-device time of 120 minutes or less for transfers

The numbers

• In 2015, our EMS patients were at the hospital with a stent or balloon in their arteries in an average of 70 minutes. That's 20 minutes faster than the national standard of 90 minutes.
• For a patient arriving at our emergency department, the artery open average was 39 minutes.
• For patients who transferred in, the open time was 96 minutes, far better than the national standard of 120 minutes.

Because of those efforts and other achievements in the care of emergency heart patients, the NHRMC Heart Center received the American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline Gold Plus Achievement Award in 2016.

In addition, New Hanover Regional EMS and Airlink VitaLink, who play a vital role in helping NHRMC get timely care to you,  received a Mission: Lifeline Gold Award for 2015.

New Hanover Regional Medical Center's commitment to safety was recognized by The Leapfrog Group, which awarded the hospital an 'A' grade in 2017, it's seventh consecutive top mark. 

The Hospital Safety Score is compiled under the guidance of the nation’s leading experts on patient safety and is administered by The Leapfrog Group, an independent industry watchdog.

The Hospital Safety Score uses 30 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a letter grade of A to F representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm, including accidents, errors, injuries and infections. 

New Hanover Regional Medical Center's commitment to our patients has been recognized with the Women’s Choice Award as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Patient Experience. 

America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Patient Experience is a national list focused on female patient satisfaction and recommendation scores. Scores are determined by measures of effective communication with nurses and doctors, responsiveness, pain management, explanations of medications, cleanliness and patient recommendation ratings.

NHRMC is one of 400 award recipients representing hospitals that have met the highest standards for patient experience in the U.S. by the Women’s Choice Award.

New Hanover Regional Medical Center's Cancer Program has been recognized as one of America’s best hospitals for cancer care by the Women’s Choice Award, an organization that uses evidence-based research to identify the brands, products and services most recommended and trusted by women.

NHRMC joins an elite network of 331 hospitals who have earned the 2015 Women’s Choice Award by meeting the highest cancer care accreditation standards of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.

This rewards excellence in patient safety and a high recommendation rate, a measure important to women in choosing a hospital.

NHRMC's Stroke Program received the Get With The Guidelines Gold Plus Achievement Award in 2016 and was recognized on the Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus, two quality recognitions presented by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. 

To receive the Gold Plus Achievement Award, hospitals must:

• Treat stroke patients with 85 percent or higher compliance to core standard levels of care for two or more consecutive 12-month periods
• Achieve 75 percent or higher compliance in 5 out of 8 quality measures

The standards measure:

• Treating a patient quickly, appropriately and thoroughly
• Scheduling followup therapies at discharge
• Prescribing appropriate medication
• Suggesting preventive measures 

NHRMC's composite score for all measures was 98.5 percent.

Stroke Honor Roll 

To earn Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus recognition, hospitals must achieve time to intravenous thrombolytic therapy, or door-to-needle time, of 60 minutes or less in 75 percent of stroke patients and door-to-needle time of 45 minutes or less in 50 percent of stroke patients. The IV therapy will break up a clot, which is depriving oxygen to part of the brain. Fast action can limit the damage caused by a stroke.

NHRMC's median door-to-needle time is 34 minutes.

New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s Bariatric Surgery Program has been designated as a Blue Distinction® Center+ by Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Blue Distinction Centers+ for Bariatric Surgery are healthcare facilities with demonstrated expertise and a commitment to quality care while meeting requirements for cost efficiency.

Blue Distinction Centers+ for Bariatric Surgery designations are awarded for two types of bariatric procedures: gastric stapling and gastric banding. To be considered for designation, the facility must provide a full range of bariatric surgery care, including inpatient care, postoperative care, outpatient follow-up care and patient education.

Evaluation criteria are based on what impacts the patient and patient care the most, including:

• The expertise of the medical team
• The number of times NHRMC has performed bariatric procedures 
• NHRMC’s track record for procedure results  

New Hanover Regional Medical Center has received Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers from The Joint Commission, a recognition that means NHRMC implements the best practices for stroke care and has met and seeks to maintain the Joint Commission’s high standards in providing stroke care.

The review resulted in NHRMC also earning The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Heart-Check mark, which represent excellence in quality.

NHRMC's Stroke Program treats about 900 stroke patients each year.

NHRMC Home Care has been named to the 2016 HomeCare Elite list of top nationwide home care agencies for the third year in a row. The recognition is based on quality outcomes, best practice implementation, patient experience, quality improvement and consistency and financial performance. This market-leading review, from ABILITY Network and sponsored by DecisionHealth, names the top 25 percent of agencies in home health performance measures.

New Hanover Regional Medical Center's Bariatric Surgery Program has been recognized as one of America’s best hospitals for bariatric surgery by the 2017 Women’s Choice Award, which uses evidence-based research to identify the brands, products and services most recommended and trusted by women.

The Women’s Choice Award recognizes hospitals that have met the highest standards of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery through the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program. This award also notes that NHRMC ranked above the national average for patient recommendation rates and signifies NHRMC’s commitment to an extraordinary healthcare experience for women and all patients.