Chart toppers: Business North Carolina's best hospitals.

AuthorMartin, Cathy

With more than a billion dollars worth of projects and improvements planned or underway, North Carolina's top hospitals are looking ahead to accommodate a growing population and stay at the forefront of medical innovations. Choosing the best medical center for an important surgery or procedure can be overwhelming. Our annual list of the state's Best Hospitals, which ranks all adult, acute-care medical centers with 50 beds or more, helps identify hospitals that excel in areas including patient satisfaction, safety, and readmission and death rates for common conditions and procedures. The list is calculated primarily by examining data from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as of December 2015, along with other criteria from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, U.S. News & World Report and The Leapfrog Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for hospital quality and safety.

1 DUKE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

DURHAM

BEDS: 957

Duke's 201-acre main medical campus hosted 1 million outpatient visits last year, providing services ranging from MRIs to physical therapy. Doctors performed more than 40,000 surgical procedures, including more than 1,100 adult open heart surgeries and 440 organ transplants. Duke, part of a system with $3 billion in annual revenue, last year launched North Carolina's first hand transplant program, open to adults who have lost one or both limbs below the elbow. Fewer than 20 medical centers in the U.S. perform the complex procedure. In June, Duke opened a 116,000-square-foot, $45 million expansion of its eye center to accommodate more than 15,000 additional patients annually, with services ranging from routine eye care to treatments for glaucoma, cancer and other eye diseases.

2 MISSION HOSPITAL

ASHEVILLE

BEDS: 763

The flagship of the state's sixth-largest hospital system is undertaking a $404 million construction project--one of the largest in Asheville's history--to replace the aging former St. Joseph's facility with a 12-story tower that will add a larger emergency department and include 220 patient rooms. The 635,000-square-foot structure, paid for partly by $203 million in taxable bonds, is expected to open in fall 2018. In September, Mission performed the first ventricular assist device implant in western N.C. The procedure allows patients with late-stage congestive heart failure to improve their quality of life and live longer, and it can serve as a bridge to an eventual heart transplant.

3 CONE HEALTH (1)

GREENSBORO | BEDS: 906

Nearly three years after opening a $200 million, six-story medical tower on its main campus, Cone has two major projects in the pipeline. The medical center is planning a $134.5 million relocation of its Women's Hospital, which provides maternity care and houses a neonatal intensive care unit, to Cone's main campus, about 2 miles away. Plans call for a 50,000-square-foot tower adjacent to the main hospital, with a tentative opening of 2020. The health care system also is planning a $38.5 million renovation of its operating rooms at the 175-bed Wesley Long Hospital, home to an oncology center and bariatric and orthopedic surgery centers.

4 UNC REX HEALTHCARE

RALEIGH | BEDS: 660

Changes in executive leadership--three top officials, including former President David Strong, have departed for Orlando Health, an eight-hospital system in Florida, within the last 14 months--haven't slowed progress of a new, 306,000-square-foot N.C. Heart & Vascular Hospital, expected to open in early 2017. Cardiac surgeries increased more than 60% from 2011 to 2014 at the hospital. The $235 million venture, funded in part by $150 million in bonds, is UNC Rex's largest construction project since it moved to the campus on Lake Boone Trail in 1980. As of January, a community group that included the Rex Healthcare Foundation was about halfway to reaching its fundraising goal of $10 million to help support the project, which will relocate 114 beds from the main hospital.

5 (TIE) CAROLINAEAST MEDICAL CENTER

NEW BERN | BEDS: 350

5 (TIE) NEW HANOVER REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER

WILMINGTON | BEDS: 769

7 WAKEMED RALEIGH CAMPUS

RALEIGH | BEDS: 704

8 FIRSTHEALTH MOORE REGIONAL HOSPITAL (2)

PINEHURST | BEDS: 486

As part of a $20.7 million project, FirstHealth is doubling the size of its orthopedic unit to 38,025 square feet, increasing its bed count from 29 to 44. Larger patient rooms will include sleeper sofas for family members and portals for nurses to perform tasks such as dropping off and collecting linens with minimal interruption. The expansion, which is being rolled out in four phases, is expected to be complete by July 2017.

9 CAROLINAS MEDICAL CENTER 3

CHARLOTTE | BEDS: 1,080

In February, Carolinas Healthcare System tapped Eugene Woods as CEO, replacing Michael Tarwater, who is retiring in June. Woods has been president and chief operating officer of Irving, Texas-based Christus Health since 2011. Tarwater has led...

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