Fall is here, and it’s Thanksgiving season – making it a great time to look back on all we’ve accomplished for our patients and the community here at WakeMed Cary Hospital this year.
It’s safe to say that it’s been a challenging, yet remarkable year for Cary Hospital and our community. As we’ve continued to fight COVID-19, I am so thankful for our committed team of caregivers here at WakeMed Cary Hospital. We’re also grateful for the continued support of our western Wake County community as we continue to add new services, programs and facilities to better serve you.
As I take the time to reflect on the past 12 months, here’s a quick summary of our recent growth and what’s on the horizon here at WakeMed Cary Hospital.
2021 Reflections
It’s been a great year of expansion and achievements that are allowing us to better serve the growing southern and western Wake County community.
- Women’s Pavilion & Birthplace Enhancements: Thirteen rooms in our Mother/Baby unit received a major facelift this fall. The new furniture, beautiful tiled walk-in showers and paint color refresh will enhance these new families’ postpartum care experience.
- New Sleep Center: Our new sleep center, located at the Health Park of Kildaire in Cary, has opened and is serving both adult and pediatric patients who have a potential sleep disorder. Featuring a hotel-like atmosphere and state-of-the-art diagnostic testing, our sleep center is fully-staffed by expert sleep technologists and sleep medicine physicians.
- Comprehensive Hernia Center: Addressing a wide variety of hernias, WakeMed Physician Practices – General Surgery practice has established a new comprehensive, multidisciplinary Hernia Program designed to improve outcomes and enhance recovery for patients who need surgical repair/treatment. With new strategies including pre-surgery rehab (known as prehab) and recommending lifestyle modifications prior to surgery, as well as enhanced surgical protocols (see ERAS story) and post-operative physical therapy, our hernia patients are experiencing faster recovery and better outcomes – all with the help of our highly-specialized, coordinated treatment plan and care teams.
- Heart & Vascular Accolades & Certifications:
- Chest Pain Center: WakeMed Cary Hospital received reaccreditation as a certified Chest Pain Center from the American College of Cardiology (ACC). This esteemed designation was awarded following a rigorous evaluation, assessing our staff’s ability to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients who may be experiencing a heart attack.
- Stroke & Heart Failure Programs: The WakeMed Cary Hospital physicians and staff who care for stroke and heart failure patients have been recognized once again for delivering the highest level of care with the Get With the Guidelines® Quality Awards and Target honors from the American Heart Association.
- Top-notch Quality Scores: WakeMed Cary Hospital recently earned an A grade from The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit organization that promotes safety, quality and affordability in healthcare. Only 32 percent of hospitals nationwide received A’s in this round of scores. See our hospital-specific quality measures.
Looking Ahead to 2022 and Beyond
Even with all these new services, there’s more growth on the way. Here’s a quick overview of some major plans coming up for WakeMed Cary Hospital.
- New Advanced Imaging Equipment: As part of our agreement with Siemens Healthineers, WakeMed Cary Hospital has upgraded much of its imaging equipment and has added a new x-ray/fluoroscopy machine. A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) featuring the latest technology will be up and running by the end of this year to help support advanced diagnostic imaging for patients with brain or spinal traumas, strokes, other neurological conditions, soft tissue and organ abnormalities, and more.
- Outpatient Surgery Center: A new outpatient surgery center is under construction on the fourth floor of the Medical Park of Cary. Expected to open in the spring of 2022, this new, state-of-the-art surgery center will help transition many surgeries that have historically been performed in the hospital to a convenient outpatient location – particularly in specialty areas such as general surgery, urology, orthopaedics and plastic surgery. This may help reduce out-of-pocket costs for some patients and will allow us to reserve the hospital for more complex surgical procedures.
- Advanced Treatments for Cardiac Arrhythmias: In the spring of 2022, WakeMed Cary Hospital will open a new advanced electrophysiology (EP) room. Starting this fall, we added more diagnostic and electrophysiology interventional procedures. These offerings will continue to expand with the new EP room this spring.
In closing, this Thanksgiving, we are most grateful for you, our WakeMed Cary Hospital community. Thank you for trusting us with your care – we wish you and your loved ones a safe and healthy holiday season!
