Getting to the Heart of the Matter

New Hanover Regional Medical Center Heart Center

Healthcare can be stressful.

For patients dealing with the emotions and physical constraints of a new diagnosis, navigating through a medical facility can be an anxiety-ridden experience. Unfortunate details such as inconvenient parking, confusing signage, or a badly-lit institutional aesthetic all compound the stress of an already difficult situation.

For doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff, the daily schedule can be grueling, with increasingly limited time to listen to, treat, and educate patients. Inefficient or outdated facilities add steps, waste precious minutes, and contribute to a sense of working in isolation.

For healthcare systems, the stress comes from ever-higher levels of accountability, rising costs, and rapid changes in healthcare delivery. As best practices evolve and new models for delivery appear, healthcare systems are caught between providing the best possible care for today’s patients while anticipating the needs of tomorrow. Also problematic: technology evolves faster than buildings.

In evaluating the long-term needs of its cardiology services, New Hanover Regional Medical Center needed better plan. NHRMC was operating four separate cardiac-related practices scattered across three buildings. The situation was confusing and stressful for patients, inefficient and isolating for physicians, and expensive to operate.

NHRMC and LS3P collaborated on a solution.