New Hanover Regional opens new ER Wednesday

May 31, 2016

Helen Holt,

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Life can take an unexpected turn for the worst, which may end up with you in the ER.

New Hanover Regional Medical Center is hoping to make those crucial moments go as smoothly as possible for the patient and families.

“If you think of it, we have seen it, or we will see,” Registered Nurse Sarah Fuller.

Fuller knows all too well how life can change in an instant.

“We see all ages from literally delivering children, which we don’t like to do, but we do, all the way to their last moments, so you see it all,” Fuller said.

It’s people like her and places like New Hanover Regional that are so important during those moments. That’s why comfort, convenience and privacy were top priorities when it came to building this new emergency department.

“We used our patient feedback either verbally or through surveys, things we learned through the years in order to serve our patients better,” NHRMC Administrator Emergency Service Christy Spivey said.

Officials say New Hanover Regional has the busiest emergency department in southeastern North Carolina, so this expansion will double the department in size. They say this will allow the facility to care for more than 100,000 patients a year.

“One thing we have done differently is we are were able to set aside an area of our pediatrics patients and provide that extra comfort and be more child-friendly,” Emergency Department Manager Casey Powell said.

Powell says it’s about taking care of the patients as well as their families.

“We want the family to be active with the patient and to be involved from the time they entered the door all the way through the process,” Powell said.

With the expected growth of the county and surrounding areas, officials say the hospital will be able to support that growth.

It also means more jobs and something Fuller says will make her job a whole lot easier.

“The patients should be happier, the families should be happier, so that always makes it easier on us if they are happy and that’s what we want,” she said.

This project will be complete in March 2017, but phase 3 is opening Wednesday at 7 a.m. It includes nearly 80 patient spaces, a large reception area and six pediatric patient rooms that give children access to gaming stations.