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A retired doctor says he nearly died at NHRMC. Now he's pushing for reform

On this episode, it's a conversation with Jon Martell, a retired doctor and former hospital administrator who says he nearly died at New Hanover Regional Medical Center — not because of a mistake made by a nurse or doctor, but because of systemic issues at the hospital. The experience led him to found a new nonprofit to push for a safer, higher-quality hospital. WHQR also spoke with top Novant medical administrators to work through some of Martell's systemic concerns.

Links:

Intro transcription:

From WHQR Public Media — this is the Newsroom, I’m Ben Schachtman, thanks for joining us…

On today’s show, we’re talking about New Hanover Regional Medical Center — the once county-owned hospital that was sold to Novant Health several years ago.

There’s been a fair amount of reporting on NHRMC, including a death at the hospital two years ago that put the hospital at risk of sanctions from the federal government.

Other, anecdotal stories continue to leak out of the hospital – here at WHQR we’ve interviewed several folks on the record recently, and I’ve received dozens of emails, messages, and phone calls from people who have had bad experiences.

These stories are troubling, and often very personal. I’m grateful to the people who have shared their experiences with us — and you’ll likely be hearing more about them here on WHQR in the coming weeks and months.

But the story we’re telling today, is one that really stood out to me.

Jon Martell is a retired doctor and former hospital administrator. When he and his wife first sat down with me in March, the story they told floored me.

Martell told me bluntly, the hospital had nearly killed him. But it wasn’t just that — based on his medical background and his experience working on quality control in hospitals, he was able to clearly articulate exactly what wrong, as you’ll hear on today’s show. Martell was also able to lay out what could change to prevent it from happening again.

I want to note that HIPAA, federal patient privacy laws, prevent NHRMC — or any hospital — from discussing the details of a specific incident. But Novant did agree to talk about some of the systemic issues that Martell raised — and you can hear some of that interview at the end of today’s show.

I also want to say, and I think Martell would agree with me here, that nothing we’re talking about today is intended to disparage healthcare workers. And it’s important to understand this story in the context of a national crisis in healthcare — an incredible level of burnout, the lingering psychological stress from the Covid pandemic, low morale, and a broken healthcare insurance system that has all kinds of negative knock-on effects for patients and hospitals alike.

I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad.

But in spite of that, thousands of dedicated, talented people keep at it in our community. From me, after talking to Martell several times, his story isn’t about how healthcare providers are failing — it’s a story about how healthcare is failing those providers.

Ben Schachtman is a journalist and editor with a focus on local government accountability. He began reporting for Port City Daily in the Wilmington area in 2016 and took over as managing editor there in 2018. He’s a graduate of Rutgers College and later received his MA from NYU and his PhD from SUNY-Stony Brook, both in English Literature. He loves spending time with his wife and playing rock'n'roll very loudly. You can reach him at BSchachtman@whqr.org and find him on Twitter @Ben_Schachtman.