New Hanover Health Network Reviews

Former Employee – worked at New Hanover Health Network

Pros – Great mission. Really making a difference in the lives of people. Staff is committed to the overall mission.

Cons – Difficult to deal with the sadness that sometimes comes with the job.

Advice to Senior Management – n/a

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at New Hanover Health Network

Pros – Decent benefits comparable to other facilities or organizations in the area. Decent camaraderie among junior staff members.

Cons – Only hospital system in the county, largest employer for medical personnel. The Network has a monopoly on the health care field, which makes it almost the only place to work. HR lords over the company an acts on its' own rules an on its' own time. Junior staff is not appreciated, general feeling is that staff is a dime a dozen and can easily be replaced. As they are a monopoly, they are not concerned with employee satisfaction. There are no alternatives for employment, you either pretend to enjoy working for them or quickly find employment in a different field. The facilities themselves, are poor and in need of repair. Equipment is greatly outdated and unreliable, broken more often than working. When new construction or repairs are made to the facilities, they are not quality. Within days of new construction, brand new floors buckle and peel, paint staining and peeling off walls. While housekeeping attempts at upkeep, not enough staff means poor cleaning and not often enough. Layout of newly remodeled areas or newly built areas exhibit poor planning as necessary things are forgotten and patient flow is jumbled. The focus of senior management is patient satisfaction, while important, because of the over-focus of the network it gets in the way of staff providing basic care and functions. When senior management automatically tries to "recover" a bad customer experience or when someone complains, and management hastily gives gift cards or something similar to the individual without investigating the situation, creates a hostile work environment. As patients and their family members have come to learn if they complain they get rewarded and the staff reprimanded, even if the staff member was correct in their actions. Not only does it create a hostile work environment but not having the support of senior management damages employee morale.

Advice to Senior Management – Restructure middle management, there seems to be a strong disconnect between senior management and junior staff. Restructure HR and make them more accountable to employees and to the network. Improve staff salaries, compared to cost of living for the area, salaries are not enough for people to make ends meet without finding secondary employment. Support staff and show it, the customer is not always right. Invest more in housekeeping, patients don't like coming to a dirty hospital and staff don't like working in one either. When remodeling or before new construction get more junior staff involvement in the planning and designing, they are the ones that have to work in these areas and have the best insight on how things will work. Nationally based surveys are okay for seeing how the facility measures up to other facilities, but this does not adequately represent employee performance or patient satisfaction. A tailor made survey based on methods, procedures, and facilities used by the network, and sent to fair number of patients (not 5 a week) would be a better representation of employee performance and patient satisfaction. Facility security can be improved, one officer for an entire campus jeopardizes the facility, the patients, staff safety, and the officers themselves. Doors that are supposed to lock, should. worry less about creating headlines and more with the outcomes of programs started or created.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend