For half a decade, New Hanover Regional Medical Center (NHRMC) has been wrestling with securing the apex safety and quality rating from Leapfrog, despite Novant Health expressing satisfaction with its current standings. The non-profit organization releases these hospital grades bi-annually, evaluating hospitals on their safety measures and overall service quality. Interestingly, in the autumn of 2021, just after Novant concluded its acquisition of NHRMC, the latter bagged an A grade. However, this was a one-time anomaly, with NHRMC predominantly obtaining a consistent B score.
Inspection of other Novant hospitals, such as its Brunswick County Medical Center and its cluster of triad hospitals reveals an impressive streak of A grades over the past years. In the past, Novant NHRMC has demonstrated competence in multiple aspects, most notably preventing medical errors and safety mishaps. Yet, it falls short when the magnifying glass hovers over infection prevention, safety, and communication.
In 2024’s assessment, NHRMC faced criticism in certain areas such as post-surgical recovery, infection prevention, and less than ideal staff responsiveness. Specifically, it scored low on infection incidence in its blood, urinary tract, and colon surgery sites. Leapfrog advises special vigilance on central line and catheter procedures, in addition to an increased mindfulness towards colon surgery patients.
Post-surgical complications such as incidents of surgical wounds rupturing open and mortality from otherwise treatable serious complications is another area where NHRMC lags. The hospital performed below average in these measures compared to other medical institutions.
Staff responsiveness was another aspect that Leapfrog highlighted as deficient at NHRMC. On a scale from 1 to 100 (a higher score indicating superior response times from healthcare staff), NHRMC secured a less than average 76 score.
Nonetheless, expressing content over the B grade for spring 2024, a Novant spokesperson expressed, ‘We’re pleased our commitment to safety and quality was once again recognized…Our culture of continuous improvement…empowers us to deliver care the community can trust now and in the future.’
However, the spokesperson didn’t specifically comment on areas of criticism identified by Leapfrog nor explain NHRMC’s struggle to achieve an A grade in recent years.
In 2022, Novant unveiled a new hand hygiene observation initiative, aiming to decimate infection rates, which have indeed seen a decline over the past two years. The CMS releases an annual hospital rating, with NHRMC receiving a mediocre three out of five stars on patient feedback and only two stars for patient safety in its previous evaluation. A forthcoming rating update is expected in July.
Source: https://www.whqr.org/local/2024-05-07/novant-nhrmc-pleased-with-b-rating-for-safety-and-quality