Moore Regional ranks among state’s best hospitals
The March 2006 top hospitals
issue of Business North
Carolina named FirstHealth
Moore Regional Hospital one of North Carolina's best
hospitals for heart, vascular
and orthopaedics care as
well as for overall clinical
excellence.
 “Each year, our Moore
Regional physicians and staff
continue to be recognized
for the care they provide to
our patients and community
every day,” says Charles T.
Frock, CEO of FirstHealth
of the Carolinas. “We are
especially proud of these
designations, because they
represent our staff’s dedication
to our core purpose, to
care for people.”
Business North Carolina used data from Solucient
(a company that has three
times ranked Moore Regional
as one of the top 100
hospitals in the country),
HealthGrades Inc. and U.S.
News and World Report when
determining its list of the
state’s best hospitals. The
Solucient information was
based on Medicare data and
the hospital’s own records,
while the HealthGrades
information came from
Medicare data that was riskadjusted
for hospitals that
receive sicker patients.
“These designations are
particularly important,
because they are based
on true outcomes-based
statistical data,” says Frock.
“As we move into a more
consumer-driven health care
environment, consumers will
be able to use this type of
information to be informed
and empowered in making
their health care decisions
and choosing the best quality
health care for their needs.”
Moore Regional’s
cancer program
gets national
recognition
The American College of
Surgeons Commission on
Cancer (CoC) has recognized
the cancer treatment
program at FirstHealth
Moore Regional Hospital
with an Outstanding Recognition
Award.
Only 39 of the cancer
treatment programs in the
United States—just four in
North Carolina—that were surveyed by the CoC during
2005 were so recognized. The
number includes community-based
facilities, such as Moore
Regional, as well as teaching
hospitals, National Cancer
Institute-designated cancer
centers and network cancer
programs.
Jeffrey C. Acker, M.D. |
“This CoC recognition
validates the effectiveness of
the hard work of many different
individuals and departments
aimed at providing the
best cancer care possible here
in Moore County,” says Jeffrey
C. Acker, M.D., medical
director of Moore Regional’s Community Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“The CoC standards require
multidisciplinary excellence to
be recognized in this fashion.
Everyone involved has much
to be proud of as we continue
to monitor and improve the
care of our cancer patients.”
The CoC is a consortium
of professional organizations
dedicated to improving
survival and quality of life
for cancer patients. Its Outstanding
Achievement Award
recognizes excellence in
each of seven standards that
represent the full range of
cancer care: cancer committee
leadership, cancer data
management, clinical management,
research, community
outreach, professional
education and staff support,
and quality improvement.
For a copy of FirstHealth’s
annual Cancer Report, please
call (800) 213-3284.
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RMH nurse named Emergency Nurse of Year
In a nursing career filled
with the triumphs and
tragedies of the emergency
department, Sheila Fulp, R.N.,
is hard-pressed to recall the
particulars of any one emergency
that she has worked.
The wise words of a veteran
emergency physician do come
to mind, however.
Sheila Fulp, R.N., has
worked in the Emergency
Department at FirstHealth
Richmond Memorial
Hospital for 13 years. She
has just been recognized
as the Sandhills Emergency
Physicians Emergency Nurse
of the Year by the physician
practice that staffs the
emergency departments at
all three FirstHealth of the
Carolinas hospitals.
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Fulp was in her first ED
nursing job at the time. The
unit had begun to buzz with
the anticipation of an incoming
trauma, and the physician
in charge seemed to be taking
his time putting on his gloves.
All these years later, Fulp
remembers exactly what he
said as he pulled a glove over a
hand: “The first thing you do
in an emergency is take your
own pulse.”
The advice has served
Fulp well in nearly 14 years
as an emergency department
nurse—the last 13
at FirstHealth Richmond
Memorial Hospital. While
she may not think of it every
time an emergency comes in
the door, she knows that she
needs to prepare herself, both
mentally and physically, for
the challenge that lies ahead.
“You can’t run an emergency
if you’re not calm yourself,”
she says.
Last year, the physicians
who staff the emergency
departments at all three
FirstHealth of the Carolinas
hospitals began recognizing a
nurse as the Sandhills Emergency
Physicians Emergency
Nurse of the Year. This year,
they chose Fulp from among
all of the emergency nurses at
Moore Regional, Richmond
Memorial and Montgomery
Memorial hospitals.
According to Ted A. Graham,
medical director of Richmond
Memorial’s Emergency
Department, Fulp was chosen
for the recognition because she
is a “difference-maker.”
“She has excellent intuition
and nursing skills and
is a diligent worker,” he says.
“She is also a leader among
nurses and creates a cohesive
team approach during
her shifts that’s improved
the efficiency of the entire
department and lifts the level
of nursing across the board.
The patient’s stay is quicker,
and the doctor’s worries are
fewer when Sheila is on the
team.”
Cindy McNeill-McDonald,
the hospital’s chief operating
officer and chief nursing officer,
agrees. “Sheila is an excellent
clinical nurse in the emergency
department,” she says. “The
physicians often tell me that if
there is a crisis or a busy night,
they want Sheila to be the nurse
in charge. She is a patient advocate
and always makes sure the
patients get what they need. Her
co-workers enjoy working with
her, and we are very fortunate
to have her at FirstHealth
Richmond.”
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Nurse practitioner offers family care services at Biscoe clinic
Joleen Moore, C-FNP, has always been
interested in sports. She was the catcher
on her high school’s varsity softball team,
as well as on a number of summer league
teams, and she served as scorekeeper for
almost every other sport that her high
school offered.
When she enrolled at North Carolina
State University in the early 1980s, she
thought she wanted a career in criminal
justice, but her love of sports pulled her
in a different direction. Energized by N.C.
State football and the school’s 1983 men’s
championship basketball team, Moore
developed an interest in sports medicine.
It was a field that had not then opened up
as it has today, however, so Moore’s older
sister suggested another option.
“My sister inspired me to go into nursing,”
Moore says. “She said, ‘If you like
sports medicine, you should like nursing,’
She knew what a caregiver I was. She
even took me to UNC-G, a school noted
for its nursing program, and showed me
the campus.”
Her sister’s instincts proved correct,
and Moore has made a professional life
in health care. A certified family nurse
practitioner, she began seeing patients at
the FirstHealth Family Care Center-Biscoe
this spring.
Although she has a long background
in family care nursing, Moore has, for
the past several years, concentrated on
adolescents and teens as the family nurse
practitioner for FirstHealth’s School-based
Health Centers at East and West Middle
schools. She began her nursing career as
a staff and charge nurse on Jackson Hall
and in Labor & Delivery at FirstHealth
Moore Regional Hospital after getting
her bachelor’s degree in nursing from
UNC-G. After working in various nursing
positions for nearly a decade, she returned
to school and earned her Master
of Science in Nursing from the Family
Nurse Practitioner Program at Duke
University.
The FirstHealth Family Care Center-Biscoe is
located at 104 Professional Drive in Biscoe. To
schedule an appointment with Joleen Moore,
C-FNP, call (910) 428-3720
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FirstHealth’s Caliri gets national medical fitness award
New Jersey-raised John Caliri
discovered the Sandhills while
in the military and decided to
stay in the area after he completed
his hitch with the Marine
Corps. He joined FirstHealth
of the Carolinas part time as
a lifeguard in 1995 and two
years later became operations
director of the
FirstHealth
Center for
Health & Fitness-Pinehurst.
John Caliri
|
Now the
director for all
six FirstHealth
Centers for
Health &
Fitness, Caliri has throughout
his tenure
with FirstHealth promoted the integration of medicine-based fitness into fitness programming.
He recently received an
award from the national Medical
Fitness Association (MFA)
for “exceptional, long-term
volunteer service” to the MFA and the medical fitness industry.
Founded in 1991, the MFA is
a nonprofit organization dedicated to medically based fitness and wellness facilities.
Caliri shared the Don Schneider
Distinguished Service Award with Art Slowinski of Advocate Health Care in Chicago.
According to the MFA,
its awards “celebrate and honor
the best and the brightest in medical fitness center management.”
Specifically, Caliri
was recognized for his role in
bringing the regional Southeastern
Hospital Health and
Fitness Alliance (SEHFA) into
the national MFA fold. Sixty
hospitals in the five-state region
of North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee
and Virginia comprise SEHFA’s
membership and are committed to promoting medical fitness in their programming.
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MMH’s Shutt gets physical therapy education award
Michael Shutt,
manager of the rehabilitation
program at
FirstHealth Montgomery
Memorial
Hospital, received
the Outstanding
Clinical Educator
Award presented
by the Carolinas
Clinical Education
Consortium.
Shutt, who joined the Montgomery
Memorial Hospital staff
last year, was recognized at the consortium’s annual conference
at Trident Technical College
in Charleston, S.C., in March.
Karen Reddick, who completed
an internship at Montgomery
Memorial before joining the
hospital’s staff as a full-time
physical therapist earlier this year,
nominated him for the award.
The Carolinas Clinical Education
Consortium is an organization
made up of all of the
accredited physical therapy and
physical therapist assistant education
programs in North and
South Carolina.
One of those
programs is located at Winston-Salem State University, where
Reddick earned her degree.
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Three FirstHealth nurses chosen for professional program
Melanie Harrison, R.N.
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Marsha Hudson, R.N.
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Willa W. Hughey, R.N. II
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The traditional image of a nurse is that of a bedside caregiver.
Throughout the years, however, nursing has become more and
more specialized as nurses have moved into a variety of non-traditional
caregiving roles.
The three FirstHealth of the Carolinas
nurses who participated in the
2006 Institute for Nursing Excellence
program illustrate just how varied those
roles can be. Melanie Harrison, R.N.,
works in Moore Regional’s Inpatient
Oncology department. Marsha Hudson,
R.N., serves five Moore County schools
as a nurse in FirstHealth’s School Nurse
Program. Willa W. Hughey, R.N. II,
OCN, works in the hospital’s Radiation
Oncology department.
They joined 24 other nurses representing
the spectrum of nursing
care—hospitals, schools, retirement
communities and home health—for
the Institute for Nursing Excellence
program, which was held in May at the
Trinity Center in Salter Path. No other
health care organization in the state
was represented by as many nurses as
FirstHealth in the one-week professional
development program.
“This award is to recognize the best
direct-care registered nurses in the state,”
says Cheryl Batchelor, executive director
of Clinical Operations at Moore Regional
Hospital. “Clearly, we are proud that,
again this year, the Institute for Nursing
Excellence selected nurses who work at
FirstHealth. It demonstrates that the ‘best
of the best’ want to work here.”
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MRH nurses nationally recognized for patient/family care
Nurses at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital know that
FirstHealth’s core purpose, to care for people, means caring for
the families of patients as well as for the patients themselves.
Nowhere is that more true than in the nursing units that care
for patients who are critically ill and may be dying.
At that point, the family focus
becomes almost as important as the
patient focus. If the patient dies,
the caring for the bereaved family
continues.
Phyllis Hergenhahn, R.N.
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Sandra Jones, R.N.
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The American Association of
Critical Care Nurses (AACN) has
recognized two Moore Regional
nurses, Sandra Jones of the Cardiovascular
and Thoracic ICU (CVT
ICU) and Phyllis Hergenhahn of
the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU), for
their work with the families of critically
ill or deceased patients. Both
Jones and Hergenhahn received a
Circle of Excellence in Collaboration
Award for Nurse to Family
Collaboration from the AACN, and
both were recognized at the organization’s
annual National Teaching
Institute & Critical Care Exposition
in Anaheim, Calif., in May.
The award program recognizes
the contributions and achievements
of nurses who exemplify AACN’s
mission, vision and care, and who
have made a difference in health
care and their communities. “To
have Sandy and Phyllis recognized
by the AACN is truly an honor
for them and for FirstHealth,” says Linda Wallace, chief nursing
officer at Moore Regional Hospital.
“We are proud of the excellence
they represent every day in their
practice.”
Hergenhahn, who has been a
nurse for 27 years and at Moore
Regional for eight years, was
recognized for a particular incident
involving the family of a patient
who was on life support after a
heart attack. Although she was not
the patient’s primary care nurse,
Hergenhahn was able to comfort
the distraught family members and
help them concentrate on their
mother’s situation.
Jones’s AACN award recognized
her role in creating a bereavement
program for the families of patients
who die at Moore Regional.
The program extends the hospital/
family contact to a year after a
patient dies, and includes sympathy
cards, mementoes and follow-up
telephone calls. A nurse for 26
years, Jones has been a member of
Moore Regional’s CVT ICU staff
for 13 years.
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