Healthcare Directory

56 | 2017 Medical & Dental Directory The staff's goal is to ensure each patient can manage their wound on an outpatient-level before discharging the patient home. Kelly Steere is Highsmith-Rainey's Nursing Director. She said obtaining Disease Specific Certification for Wound Care through The Joint Commission has galvanized her staff. "It's taken our wound care program and the clinical services we provide to another level," she said. ED Gateway Cape Fear Valley Medical Center's Emergency Department is easily the busiest in the state and among the busiest in the nation. Many patients arrive suffering from pneumonia or sepsis. Both can be fatal if left untreated. Most people have heard of pneumonia. The severe lung infection often kills older adults, babies and people with weakened immune systems. But sepsis can be just as deadly. It affects more than 1 million Americans annually. Up to half eventually die. The serious medical condition is caused by an overwhelming immune response to an infection in the body. Chemicals released into the blood to fight the infection trigger a widespread inflammatory response. The inflammation may cause organ damage and blood clotting, which reduces blood flow to limbs and vital organs. This robs them of nutrients and oxygen. Organs fail and blood pressure plummets in advanced cases, which can lead to complete organ shut down. "It's one of our biggest killers in our ICUs," said Amanda Atkinson, M.D., M.H.A., an Emergency Medicine and Critical Care physician. "We really take things like sepsis seriously." Quickly recognizing symptoms, such as low blood pressure and lactic acid build-up in the blood, increases recovery chances. Sepsis patients are often dehydrated and require intravenous fluids. Clinicians can use bedside ultrasound to determine the level of fluids needed. Powerful antibiotics and other medications are then prescribed to reduce the source infection and the body's corresponding response. Pneumonia is treated in a similar fashion. Doctors work to find the source infection in the lungs using various methods, including X-rays, ultrasound and blood tests. It's then treated with antibiotics. Most people fully recover. But if the illness is severe enough, it can lead to lasting side effects – even if the condition was properly treated. "In the ICU, many other organs beside the lungs can suffer when someone gets pneumonia," Dr. Atkinson said. "That's why it's important to treat it as soon and as aggressively as possible." Heart failure and heart attack patients are frequent visitors to the Emergency Department. Cape Fear Valley has had a Chest Paint Center of Excellence for years, but it was originally accredited through the Society for Chest Pain Centers. Michael Hodges, M.D., is the Director for Cardiac Quality and Chairman of the Clinical Performance Improvement Committee at Cape Fear Valley. He says the chest pain center designation was a way to show Cape Fear Valley could compete with any other hospital in the state when it came to cardiac care. Cape Fear Valley still maintains the Chest Pain Center accreditation. But the health system has also pursued Disease Specific Care certification for Heart Attack and Heart Failure treatment through The Joint Commission, as an overall quality strategy. Maintaining both accreditations means extra work for an already busy cardiac care staff. But it's that commitment to continually pursue quality that defines what Cape Fear Valley Health is today. "We now have a culture of providing quality care," Dr. Hodges said. "We know we're doing good work. We've known that for years. Now we're just being recognized on a national level for our efforts." n Michael Hodges, M.D., is the Director for Cardiac Quality and Chairman of the Clinical Performance Improvement Committee at Cape Fear Valley.

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