Why NHRMC is honored to present its new neurosciences hospital
It was almost too much for a hospital team to bear.
A stroke patient who’d arrived at New Hanover Regional Medical Center desperately needed advanced treatment that was simply not available. We had to transport the patient quickly to a hospital in the Triangle. But our medical helicopter was grounded by a storm.
Though the patient recovered, our team was incredibly frustrated. We’ve devoted our lives to caring for people in their darkest hours. And yet we were not able to provide that care in our own facility – a problem we later remedied by adding specialists.
Still, that story illustrates why we’re so honored to mark the recent opening of the Novant Health Neurosciences Institute - New Hanover in Wilmington. This “hospital within a hospital” offers the latest in stroke, brain, spine and neurological care for patients from seven counties. It’s the result of years of planning that harnesses exciting advancements in the treatment of strokes and other neurological diseases.
In the past, we routinely sent individuals with the most serious neurological ailments to the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. We’ve had great partnerships with hospitals in those cities. There’s no question, though, that patients want to stay close to home. Some families don't have the resources to travel more than two hours to get care, or go back and forth to support seriously ill loved ones.
It’s deeply meaningful to me that patients and families battling stroke, brain tumors, spine injuries, epilepsy, MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and more can now receive care near family and friends. This is the kind of facility I envisioned for our city when my wife and I moved from New Jersey to Wilmington in 2015.
My wife is a graduate of UNC Wilmington and she always wanted to settle here. When I was a kid, I read a book by Wilmington native Robert Ruark in which he described hunting, fishing and being outdoors with his grandfather in southeast North Carolina. Though my medical education and training in stroke and vascular neurology were completed elsewhere, I always thought Wilmington would be a terrific place to live.
I quickly realized when I began work here that our hospital could – and should – offer more sophisticated care in neurology, especially given our location in the “stroke belt.” The southeastern U.S. sees more strokes and higher mortality from strokes than anywhere else in the nation. Our hospital not only had the responsibility to care for strokes in our community, we were also the referral center for all of southeastern North Carolina. Patients were depending on us.
I’ve witnessed in my own family how health care outcomes may vary depending upon the services provided in your community.
My dad died of encephalitis, a viral brain infection. He was initially treated at a small community hospital. The physicians did their best, but the diagnosis was missed or unclear for about a week before Dad was transferred to a larger system with more resources. I still can’t stop thinking about it: With faster diagnosis and treatment, he might be alive today.
Compare that to my mom’s experience. She fell down a flight of stairs and experienced a subdural hematoma, or bleeding on the surface of the brain. Mom was rushed to a hospital with a neurocritical care unit and specialists who treated trauma every day. She’s back at home, living a normal life.
Patients at the Neurosciences Institute will have access to such specialists, including neurohospitalists, neurointerventionalists, neurosurgeons and specially trained nurses and support staff. The new facility with state-of-the-art equipment is helping us recruit top talent.
When we or someone we love faces a complex medical problem, we want to know there are experts close at hand, with the teams and technology to restore health. That's the level of care that saved my mom. And that's what we at the Novant Health Neurosciences Institute - New Hanover are grateful to offer to our region today.
James McKinney, MD, is medical director for the Novant Health Neurosciences Institute - New Hanover in Wilmington.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Why NHRMC is honored to present its new neurosciences hospital
