WILMINGTON, N.C. – Novant Health and New Hanover Regional Medical Center (NHRMC) have celebrated 9 months since NHRMC joined Novant Health on Feb. 1, 2021, and continue to build on initial successes while remaining committed to providing remarkable care for the community and supporting team members.
“With each passing month, it becomes apparent how culturally aligned our organizations already are,” said Shelbourn Stevens, president of NHRMC and the Novant Health Coastal market. “We are dedicated to improving the health of our communities and work together each day to deliver remarkable patient experiences.”
Recent accomplishments include:
- Increasing access to lifesaving vaccines. NHRMC has offered a robust COVID-19 vaccination clinic and crossed the 100,000 dose milestone. Team members and volunteers have provided more than 115,000 doses in our region, fully vaccinating more than 53,000 people. N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper even visited NHRMC’s vaccine clinic Oct. 13 and acknowledged the dedication of front-line healthcare workers and efforts by NHRMC to ensure equity in vaccine distribution.
- Ensuring equitable access to mammograms. NHRMC and Novant Health hosted a Women's Health and Wellness event last month to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Novant Health’s mobile mammography bus was on-site at the event to offer access to breast health services.
- Supporting the resiliency of front-line healthcare workers. NHRMC is rolling out a Novant Health internal program for training team members to serve as emotional health advocates. The program is designed to honor Novant Health’s commitment to the well-being and resiliency of team members, and training covers topics such as self-care and decompression. Already, more than 100 NHRMC team members are being trained as part of the program.
- Recruiting new providers to meet our growing community’s health needs. NHRMC Physician Group is on track to meet or exceed provider recruitment goals and has welcomed 22 new providers since June 1, when it officially joined Novant Health Medical Group, a physician-led organization that is part of Novant Health.
- Working together to expedite care for patients in need of surgeries. We are collaborating with Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center and transferring some patients for surgeries so they can be treated faster, depending on available operating room space.
- Investing in team members. Novant Health has invested more than $36 million in increasing compensation for team members, including both increases to base pay, bonuses and investments specifically targeted to front-line clinical team members.
- Providing support to grow the nursing workforce. Thanks to a generous gift to the NHRMC Foundation, we will be participating in the Novant Health Upward Mobility RN Scholarship. The program pays for up to two years of tuition for their RN licensure program while offering mentorship and a reduced schedule at work with the same pay and benefits to dedicate time to studies.
- Securing equipment and supplies to battle the pandemic. In recent months, Novant Health has provided NHRMC with ventilators when we were caring for a surge of patients with COVID-19 and secured thousands of respirators to protect our staff and providers. Having the support of Novant Health's supply chain operations has been a valuable resource, especially in a time of global shortages.
“We look forward to Feb. 1, 2022, when we will celebrate even more accomplishments and formally mark one year together,” Stevens said.
For more information on Novant Health’s partnership with NHRMC, visit NovantHealth.org/NHRMC.
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