David Shoemaker

Wilmington Health

Since 1971, Wilmington Health has been committed to the care and health of our community in Wilmington as well as all of Southeastern North Carolina. Wilmington Health is structured as a multi-specialty clinic with primary care providers integrated into the system. In this way, Wilmington Health is able to provide a comprehensive and coordinated approach to the care of all our patients. In 2013, Wilmington Health was named a 2013 Acclaim Award Honoree by the American Medical Group Association (AMGA). The prestigious honor is awarded annually to only three national healthcare organizations. Previous esteemed Acclaim Award Honorees include Mayo Clinic Health System, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and The Cleveland Clinic. Wilmington Health's drive to become a High Performance Health System (HPHS) began over five years ago by taking a programmatic approach involving a three part system of change including direction setting by our leadership, process improvement at the ground level, and a redesign of the most elemental processes throughout the organization. A priority was given to paying careful attention to metrics, analysis, and critical assessment of each innovation and how these changes may affect the total cost of care. Only by understanding each of these aspects at work, was the organization able to pragmatically and intelligently design a future approach to the provision of healthcare. Additionally, Wilmington Health leadership began to put greater focus on creating a culture of change within the organization, understanding that this is the most powerful tool in any transformative process. Included were new and improved support systems for staff and providers and development of an inspirational approach to leading the entire team to provide patient-centered healthcare. July 2012, Wilmington Health partnered with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina to form an ACO agreement. This was the first insurer-provider Accountable Care Organization in the region.