UNC Children’s Hospital Implementing Changes Following NYT Investigation

UNC Health Care will be taking several steps, including pausing some complex pediatric heart surgeries, to “restore confidence in its pediatric heart surgery program.”

The health care system announced the initiatives on Monday, after a New York Times investigation published on May 31 detailed concern regarding the quality of care some children with serious heart issues received at the UNC Children’s Hospital.

UNC Health Care will now publicly share Society for Thoracic Surgeons’ data on patient outcomes, create an external advisory board to make recommendations for improvement, create a new pediatric heart surgery family advisory council, recruit additional physicians for the heart surgery team, invest $10 million in technology and other enhancements over a three-year period and develop a new system to “support our Hospital Quality and Safety reporting efforts.”

UNC Children’s will also “temporarily pause repairing congenital heart defects in children,” according to Monday’s release.

“While UNC Health Care and its Board of Directors have strong confidence in our extraordinary current pediatric heart surgery team, we believe it is vitally important that both current and future patients, our medical colleagues, key regulators, and the public share this confidence,” chair of the UNC Health Care Board Charlie Owen said in the release.

Owen added that the hospital would wait for the final report from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services before conducting more of these surgeries.

“We will resume performance of these surgeries only after both regulators and the esteemed physicians on the Advisory Board agree it is appropriate,” UNC Health Care CEO Dr. Wesley Burks said.

UNC Hospitals will also be making more data publicly available. Officials said the health care system has shared mortality data from the pediatric heart surgery program with STS since 2005.

“UNC previously used its STS data for internal peer review and performance improvement efforts,” according to the release. But that data will now be publicly available. A current STS analysis is available on the UNC Children’s website.

The release goes on to say that it “is extremely difficult to evaluate a surgical program’s success based solely upon data that is risk-adjusted by the STS, we are releasing past data to help restore public confidence in the program, and will continue to do so in the future.”

UNC Health Care officials acknowledge that “there were past periods, in which for the most complex cases, survival rates were lower than the national average.” The release adds, “while survival rates for less complex cases were higher than the national average.”

The health care system attributes “personnel changes and other improvements” for “very strong” data from the past year.

Burks said these steps will help further UNC Health Care’s mission to serve North Carolinians.

“Our pediatric heart program cares for very sick children with incredibly complex medical problems, and our clinical team works tirelessly to help those patients return to normal, healthy and productive lives. We grieve with families anytime there is a negative outcome, and we constantly push to learn from those tragic instances.

“I want to acknowledge in the sincerest way possible, that for our team and me personally, the death of any child is one too many,” Burks continued. “These steps are part of a comprehensive effort to ensure UNC Health Care’s mission to serve all North Carolinians with the highest quality care is.”

‹

UNC Health CEO, School of Medicine Dean Dr. Wesley Burks Stepping Down in September

The UNC Health system announced Tuesday its CEO and the UNC School of Medicine's dean Dr. Wesley Burks will step down on Sept. 1.

Two UNC Health Hospitals Nationally Recognized for Maternity Services

Two UNC Health Hospitals have been ranked among the best in the nation for their maternity services. UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill and UNC Rex Healthcare in Raleigh have both been rated “high performing” for maternity services by the U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report published its inaugural edition of the Best Hospitals for Maternity, which […]

A Message of Hope from 97.9 The Hill

Amid these uncertain times, 97.9 The Hill will be here. We always have been. Let’s work together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic so we can see our friends and family again.

UNC Health Care Rebrands, Changes Name and Logo

UNC Health Care announced Thursday morning it has changed its name to simply UNC Health as part of a rebranding effort. The state-owned health care system launched its new identity to reflect its approach and commitment to improving North Carolinians’ health, saying in a release the new name is symbolic to its strategy of transformational […]

UNC Hospitals Accreditation Affected After Problems Found

A national accrediting agency has placed UNC Hospitals on “preliminary denial of accreditation status” after finding problems during a recent review. UNC Health Care confirmed the decision by the Joint Commission in a statement Friday but didn’t detail the problems. It said the status would remain in effect until another survey is completed. The statement […]

UNC System Chair Defends Interim President After Board Disclosure Concerns

The chair of the UNC System Board of Governors is defending the actions of the system’s interim president after a report detailed a lack of disclosure regarding serving on boards of major corporations. WBTV in Charlotte published a report on Tuesday saying that William Roper served on boards for private companies while leading the UNC […]

UNC Health Care Ranked Highly in US News and World Report 

UNC Health Care has come out in one of the top positions of the US News and World Report’s “Best Hospitals” ranking. Released on July 30, UNC Health Care has been given 22 “high performing” ratings in the report. This year, these hospitals nationally ranked UNC Medical Center in the specialties of Ear, Nose & […]

State Investigation Finds 'No Current Deficiencies' at UNC Hospitals

State health officials have wrapped up their investigation of events at UNC Hospitals and found that “there were no current deficiencies cited as a result of the investigation.” The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services made the announcement in a statement Thursday. The investigation began earlier this year after an article in the […]

Survey: 2018 Turnout High, Voters Embrace Expansive Options

More than 120 million Americans cast ballots in the 2018 midterm elections, with turnout surging to that of a typical presidential year in some states and the highest percentages of voters in places that have expanded access to the polls, according to an analysis of data released Thursday by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The […]

UNC Children's Hospital Implementing Changes Following NYT Investigation

UNC Health Care will be taking several steps, including pausing some complex pediatric heart surgeries, to “restore confidence in its pediatric heart surgery program.” The health care system announced the initiatives on Monday, after a New York Times investigation published on May 31 detailed concern regarding the quality of care some children with serious heart […]

›