NHRMC Health & Diagnostics Now Open in Brunswick Forest

June 2, 2010
Brunswick Forest
Brunswick Forest Medical Center Building
Photography By Wendy Hunt
Story By Hilary Brady

 
New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s new 40,000-square-foot Health and Diagnostics facility is now open in Brunswick Forest, offering locals high-quality services and close-to- home convenience.

Residents now have access to both routine care and high-tech treatment options, all from the comfort of their home county. Primary care and specialty physicians are on site, as are services such as Convenient Care, laboratory work, and imaging and diagnostics, including MRI and CT scans, ultrasound, mammography and x-ray. The new facility is being marketed as a “one-stop health services center,” offering Brunswick County the premier care that NHRMC is known for, under one roof, and all just seconds from home.

“For NHRMC, Brunswick County is a very important market,” says John Gizdic, NHRMC Vice President of Strategic Planning and Business Development. “More than fifty percent of Brunswick County residents choose to come to NHRMC for their healthcare needs. It’s a primary service area. And so bringing quality services directly to those residents is extremely important.”

NHRMC has been caring for the residents of Brunswick County for years, but in 2007 furthered that care through a partnership with Dosher Memorial Hospital to open Dosher Medical Plaza in Oak Island and a joint venture with New Hanover Radiation Oncology in Supply. “As Brunswick County continues to grow, more and more services are needed,” says Gizdic. “Through our market research, we found that, along with retail and dining alternatives, additional options in healthcare are very important to residents.”

“We wanted to further increase healthcare access for patients but do it in a way that is convenient for them to get the medical care that they want while staying close to home,” says Gizdic. “And Brunswick Forest gives us the opportunity to accomplish that.”

The two-story, 40,000-square-foot facility opened in March and is 50 percent occupied.

“We will continue to watch the population and demand for services in Brunswick County,” says Gizdic. “And as those factors continue to grow, we will expand our offerings there.”

All in-place NHRMC, Wilmington Health and Atlantic Orthopedics services are currently fully operational.

On April 24, the facility hosted an open house event, attracting hundreds of interested and excited locals.

“The great turnout we had at the open house really brings home the fact that we’re doing something right,” says Gizdic. “Everyone is eager and embracing the expanded medical care options in Brunswick County.”

NHRMC’s partnerships with Wilmington Health and Atlantic Orthopedics will allow the Brunswick Forest facility to continue making strides in expanding specialty services.

One program in particular adds significant value to the Brunswick Forest medical center. Wilmington Health (WH) now offers Convenient Care, a form of urgent care that provides treatment for all non-critical forms of illness and injuries, aches and pains, seven days a week. Convenient Care is open Monday through Friday from noon to 8 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 8 pm. Walk-ins are welcome and encouraged.

WH also offers a wide variety of specialist care options. Locals now have the ability to see physicians specializing in cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology, sleep medicine, family medicine, dermatology and its newest addition of pediatric medicine. All of these services once required a drive across the bridge.

The pediatric division of WH, The Children’s Clinic, has two locations in Wilmington and now offers access to board-certified physicians five days a week in Brunswick County as well. Sick visits, preventative care and well visits, immunizations, routine physicals and chronic care for special needs are now locally available for children ages birth through adolescence.

“We are excited about expanding our primary and specialty care services in Brunswick County to better serve our patients,” says Jeff James, CEO of Wilmington Health. “The expansion of our primary care services and the additional specialty coverage, as well as the addition of Wilmington Health Convenient Care, will bring our integrated approach to medicine closer to our expanding patient base in Brunswick County.”

In addition to WH’s extended hours, the entire facility is maximizing convenience and quality care in other areas as well. Through an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, medical records of both WH and Atlantic Orthopedics patients are confidentially shared among providers to increase continuity and quality of care.

“Our EMR system safely stores your vital medical history. Our providers can utilize valuable information contained in your past visits, lab work and testing to provide you the best care possible,” says AlysaBostick, director of Physician Relations at Wilmington Health. “For example, an after hours visit to our Convenient Care will be recorded in the EMR. Your primary care and specialist will have access to that information to better care for you in future visits.”

Jennifer Loper, Director of Business Development for Atlantic Orthopedics, says that both the EMR system and other cutting edge electronic and digital services like online appointment requests and online patient registration bring value to today’s patient experience.

“The EMR system allows us to e-prescribe so our patients have their medication waiting for them at the pharmacy thus eliminating trips back and forth to the patient’s pharmacy, among many other benefits that maximize patient convenience and physician efficiency,” explains Loper. “Additional convenience-maximizing tools that we offer are online services through our website, which allow patients to make appointment requests with any of our specialists at any of our four locations, as well as complete their patient registration paperwork all online at a time that is convenient to the patient.”

Atlantic Orthopedics has been treating patients with advanced technology and techniques within an eight county service area for more than 25 years. The group’s primary goal is to provide a high quality orthopedic experience which it first does by recruiting fellowship trained sub-specialty physicians — the highest level of medical training available in the U.S. — then investing back into diagnostic services and technologies that will help them to arrive at a more timely diagnosis and treatment plan for the patient.

“It’s all about offering a quality product and service to patients” says Loper. “We provide a deep bench of fellowship trained sub-specialists, then invest back into staff training, facilities, services and technologies to offer patients the best in orthopedic care and services. This continuous commitment to what’s best for the patients is what drives Atlantic Orthopedics to offer quality care and services to the families of Brunswick and surrounding counties.”

Atlantic Orthopedic’s office in the Brunswick Forest facility will offer specialists in hips, knees, foot and ankle, shoulders, and physical therapy, with a new fellowship-trained physician specializing in spines coming on board in October.

The new NHRMC Health and Diagnostics center is the first private practice, multi-specialty