Four MRH nurses chosen for Great 100 recognition
Moore Regional Hospital’s Great 100 nurses for 2005 are (from left) Belinda Pope, Meta Upchurch, Gladys Suggs and Nancy Stancil
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Four nurses from four different nursing units at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital are among the state’s Great 100 Nurses for 2005.
The Great 100 is a notfor-profit volunteer organization that recognizes nursing excellence among the state’s registered nurses. Every year, the group honors 100 nurses who exemplify excellence as nurses and commitment to the profession of nursing. Although Moore Regional nurses have received Great 100 honors in the past, this is the first time that so many have earned the designation at once. |
Moore Regional’s 2005 Great 100 Nurses are Belinda Pope, PACU; Nancy Stancil, Emergency Department; Gladys Suggs, Meyer Pediatrics; and Meta Upchurch, Robins ICU.
“To receive the Great 100 Award is a real honor,” said Linda Wallace, Moore Regional’s vice president for Patient Care Services. “We are extremely proud of our nurses and the excellence they represent.”
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Bennett receives NCHA’s 2005 Trustee Merit Award
 Veteran FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital trustee Russell E. Bennett Jr. received the 2005 Trustee Merit Award from the North Carolina Hospital Association (NCHA). The award is presented annually to a North Carolina hospital trustee who has made a unique contribution to his or her hospital and who has participated in statewide health care activities.
Bennett received the award July 21 at the summer NCHA meeting in Hilton Head, S.C., before more than 250 of North Carolina’s physicians, hospital trustees, administrators and NCHA associates. “Russell is an excellent board member, and his leadership over the past 50 years has helped form Richmond Memorial into the hospital that we have today,” said John Jackson, president of Richmond Memorial Hospital Operations. “NCHA couldn’t have chosen a better person.”
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Cancer Center earns ‘Approval with Commendation’
The Community Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital has received a “three-year approval with commendation” from the Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons. It is the highest level of approval granted by the CoC, which sets quality-of-care standards for cancer programs nationwide.
The CoC reviews approved programs at least every three years to ensure that they are meeting those standards. Moore Regional was first approved as a Community Hospital Cancer Center in 1995 and as a Community Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center in 1999. Earning an approval with commendation means the Cancer Center goes beyond the basic requirements, said Tom Smith, the hospital’s administrative director of Oncology and Pharmacy. “We exceeded the standards in virtually every area they look at,” he said.
The CoC inspectors gave especially high marks to the hospital’s Cancer Registry, which collects data on the type and stage of cancers, as well as treatment results. According to Jeffrey Acker, M.D., a radiation oncologist and the Cancer Center’s medical director, Moore Regional’s designation as a Community Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center assures patients that they can receive high-quality care close to home. “It means that nearly all cancer-related services—from diagnosis to treatment to post-treatment care and monitoring—can be taken care of here in Pinehurst, so patients don’t have to travel many miles to a larger city,” he said. “That is unique for a community this size.”
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FHC renews challenge grant to Moore Free Care
ClinicFirstHealth of the Carolinas has made a $50,000 challenge grant to Moore Free Care Clinic in Carthage, the second such financial award that FirstHealth has made since the clinic opened in 2004.
When combined with the funds donated by individuals and families who are associated with the medical community, the FirstHealth contribution represents a substantial portion of the clinic’s $200,000 budget, according to James A. Tart, M.D., clinic board member and its chairman of development. “This major commitment from local health care providers illustrates the support that the free clinic movement has among those who see the need every day on a very personal basis,” Dr. Tart said. During its first year of operation, Moore Free Care Clinic treated 544 patients and logged 1,147 office visits.
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MRH, radiologists partner to offer PET imaging
FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital and Pinehurst Radiology have formed a partnership called First Imaging of the Carolinas to offer PET imaging. PET (positron emission tomography) provides images of areas inside the body where metabolic activity is abnormally high, often an indication of cancer. The same equipment that does PET scans also does CT scans.
“Combining the high metabolic sensitivity of PET with the high resolution of CT lets us know not only what the problem is, but also exactly where it is,” said William Martin, M.D., of Pinehurst Radiology. “It is a great advance in imaging and cancer diagnosis.”
In the spring of 2004, Moore Regional became one of the first hospitals in the state to acquire a combined PET/ CT scanner. It was installed at the Pinehurst Radiology building, where it is more convenient for patients. With the creation of the First Imaging partnership, the hospital and its radiologists now jointly operate the PET/CT program.
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New RMH mammography equipment accredited
 FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital has added a new LoRad Platinum mammography machine to its Women’s Imaging Center, and the equipment was recently accredited by the American College of Radiology (ACR).
ACR survey evaluations are conducted by board certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field. They assess the qualifications of the personnel and the adequacy of facility equipment, and then report their findings to the ACR’s Committee on Accreditation.
The accreditation committee then provides the hospital with a comprehensive report on the survey findings. The three-year accreditation of Richmond Memorial’s mammography equipment concludes a series of events that began two years ago with initial planning for the Women’s Imaging Center and included the full-time addition of Scott Hees, D.O., to the hospital’s radiology staff. Dr. Hees and John Stevenson, M.D., read tests, discuss the results and offer recommendations to the patient’s primary care physician. They also discuss the findings with the patient.
The Women’s Imaging Center staff performs an average of 350 screening and diagnostic mammography procedures at the hospital each month.
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Dental Care Center receives Kate B. Reynolds grant
Even with Saturday clinics, the FirstHealth Dental Care Center in Southern Pines still has trouble meeting patient demand for certain procedures. Children needing follow-up restorative treatment sometimes wait up to four months for an appointment.
A $68,182 grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust in Winston-Salem will help alleviate the problem. The money will be used for operational expenses, primarily staffing and disposable daily supplies, related to an expansion that will add two treatment rooms and a consultation room to the center. Three Dental Care Centers— in Southern Pines, Raeford and Troy—currently serve the dental care needs of underprivileged children in the FirstHealth service area. The Southern Pines center is the largest of the three and the only one that operates full time. It serves children from Richmond, Lee and Harnett counties, as well as Moore.
The expansion project will add 1,300 square feet to the 2,529 square feet of existing space. Funds for the actual expansion will come from a $177,300 state grant that was announced earlier this year by North Carolina House Speaker Pro Tem Richard Morgan of Moore County.
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Cook reappointed to state Emergency Response Commission
 Tommy Cook, the associate director of FirstHealth’s Regional EMS system, has been reappointed to the 18-member N.C. Emergency Response Commission. The commission, which is chaired by the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, has existed for many years, but acquired a greater significance with the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
“We’re trying to pull together 18 agencies to work as one,” Cook said of the state commission. “In a disaster situation, we have an active group of agencies from throughout the state that can test communication skills.”
Participating agencies include the state Division of Emergency Management, Highway Patrol, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Safety and Loss Control, Office of Emergency Medical Services, Office of the State Fire Marshal, SBI, Division of Public Health, Department of Labor (Occupational Safety and Health), Community College System and the Emergency Programs Division of the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Gov. Mike Easley appointed Cook and five other at-large members from local government and private industry.
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Dental Care Center Visitors
 Dr. Shafik Dharamsi, clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, center, toured the FirstHealth Dental Care Center in Southern Pines along with Kevin Nies, project manager for the University of North Carolina’s Robert Wood Johnson Dental Pipeline Project. Dental hygienist Reba Mauldin escorted the visitors on their tour, which centered on FirstHealth’s role as a rotation site for UNC’s dental hygiene program.
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Moore Chamber, FCC introduce small business insurance product
The Moore County Chamber of Commerce and FirstCarolinaCare, FirstHealth’s wholly owned managed care plan, have introduced a new health insurance product that was specifically developed for businesses with 50 or fewer employees.
The new product, called CoverMoore, is currently being offered to Chamber members through local Chamber member brokers. Its primary objective is to expand affordable health care coverage to the working uninsured in small businesses while assisting with the recruitment and retention of Chamber members.
The CoverMoore initiative began with a request from Chamber members for a solution to the problem of the working uninsured in Moore County. The Chamber developed the small business plan with the assistance of FirstHealth of the Carolinas and FirstCarolinaCare.
For more information on the program, visit the Cover-Moore Web site at www.covermoore.org.
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Pottery Auction
 Ben Owen III (center), chats with Tom McInnis of Iron Horse Auction Co. and Carole White, director of the FirstHealth Hospice Foundation, during the 10th annual Pottery Plus Auction. Owen, a third-generation Sandhills Pottery Country potter, created the signature “Chairman’s Choice” piece that was purchased by longtime Hospice Foundation supporter Jo Ellen Yates for $8,000. The Pottery Plus Auction is the Hospice Foundation’s annual fund-raiser.
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Hurricane relief program results in record FirstHealth giving
Employees of FirstHealth of the Carolinas responded to the needs of their home communities and to hurricane relief with record giving after FirstHealth’s Board of Directors offered to match pledges to local United Way campaigns and the Montgomery County Crisis Fund with dollar-fordollar contributions to hurricane relief efforts.
By early November, employee donations to United Way and Montgomery County Crisis Fund campaigns already totaled more than $110,000, with more pledges and money still coming in.
“I am very pleased to announce that our United Way and Montgomery Crisis Fund campaign has exceeded the $110,000 mark,” said Charles T. Frock, chief executive officer of FirstHealth of the Carolinas. “This surpasses last year’s donations by more than $20,000, and pledges and donations are still coming in. On behalf of those served by United Way agencies and the Montgomery County Crisis Fund, and our fellow citizens affected by the hurricane, thanks to all who have generously donated to this campaign.”
FirstHealth’s dollar-for-dollar match endeavor was designed to eliminate the possibility that some employees would choose between disaster relief and United Way/Crisis Fund giving.
“By using this approach, we do not neglect our neighbors who depend on the services of United Way agencies and the Montgomery County Crisis Fund, while we expand our generosity to help others in need,” Frock said.
The matching funds for hurricane relief will go to such local efforts as Moore Friends for Mississippi, which “adopted” the Katrinadevastated community of Bay St. Louis, Miss., and the FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital Foundation Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. The Richmond County program is a collaborative effort of the Richmond County medical staff, FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital and Sandhills Regional Medical Center. Funds will go to hurricane victims who left their Gulf Coast homes to join relatives in Richmond County.
In addition to the matching funds program, FirstHealth’s response to hurricane relief also included support for employees who served with state and federal agencies in the disaster area, as well as an expansion of the organization’s Community Benefit Plan Participation Incentive Policy, which compensates employee volunteer efforts with paid time off.
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