The Community Achievement category honors an individual or team who successfully implemented a program addressing a problem in health care administration or delivery.
 

KAREN ISAACS

TITLE: MD, MPH
ORGANIZATION: NHRMC-Coastal Family Medicine
WHAT THE NOMINATOR SAID:
“Karen, with her combination MD/MPH, does so much to attempt to improve healthcare and the lives of patients in our community. She is one of three in the American Academy of Family Medicine’s Health Equity fellowship. Her project is centered on food insecurity.

“She has created a screening program at our clinic to link patients with Nourish NC and improved access to food. Her focus on other social determinants of health has been instrumental for our organization’s push to assess the entire patient, not just their medical issues. By doing this at a residency clinic she is also teaching the next generation of family medicine physicians and medical students how to see the entire person when a patient comes to the clinic. Since over 60% of our graduates stay in the area, she is directly teaching our communities future physicians to give better care for Wilmington.

“Karen puts in countless extra hours figuring out ways to solve problems that would make other’s heads spin. Social Determinants of Health is a huge task to take on and she is not afraid to look it in the eye and chip away at it. Working with her has taught me a lot about how to care for my patients.”

- Toren Davis
 

LANCE LEWIS

TITLE: Director of Structural Heart Disease Program
ORGANIZATION: NHRMC Physician Group-Cape Fear Heart Associates
WHAT THE NOMINATOR SAID:
“Led by Drs. W. Lance Lewis (pictured) of Cape Fear Heart Associates and Hank Marks of Coastal Thoracic Surgery, the Structural Heart Team has advocated for heart patients and brought the latest medical therapies, non-surgical techniques and minimally invasive surgeries to affected patients in our community.

“The team is a multi-disciplinary group, administered by Alana Speaker, RN, the NHRMC Structural Heart Manager. Dr. Andrew Bishop (Wilmington Health Associates), Dr. Peter Kane (Coastal Thoracic Surgery), Kathleen Jones, PA (Cape Fear Heart Associates), and Tami Martin, PA-C (Cape Fear Heart Associates) are members of the team.

“The most visible impact to the community has been training the providers and staff at NHRMC to perform Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, or TAVR.

“More recently, the team has expanded services, with Dr. Lewis performing closures of certain holes in the heart which patients can be born with, and collaborating with area electrophysiologists to implant the ‘Watchman’ left atrial appendage occlusion device.”

- William Smith
 

CHRISTY SPIVEY

TITLE: Administrator for Regional Services
ORGANIZATION: NHRMC
WHAT THE NOMINATOR SAID:
“Since Christy assumed her role as Administrator for Regional Services, her leadership in health care has extended beyond NHRMC into the entire region that NHRMC serves. She is on the road frequently at small, rural and critical access hospitals throughout Southeastern NC serving as a resource to these facilities and helping NHRMC bring new programs/ services to these communities.

“Christy has helped these small regional hospitals implement specialty services such as urology, cardiology, orthopedics and specialty testing so that patients can receive quality care closer to home. As a representative of NHRMC’s Accountable Care Organization, she works with area hospitals to study needs in those communities and helps design programs to optimize health there.

“Christy has served as an influential nurse leader with NHRMC since 1994. She oversaw a $30 million expansion of the NHRMC 17th Street Emergency Department, and opened the first free-standing Emergency Department in the health system. . . . Under her leadership, NHRMC created a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program, taking a lead in the region in helping sexual assault victims receive care while preserving evidence for prosecution.”

- Michael Voorheis
 

Read more about all of the 2019 Health Care Heroes finalists here.