It’s where patients and families gather for periods of respite, to visit, work puzzles and play games, and to get away from the clinical realities of cancer treatment.
It’s where social workers meet with patients and families to discuss discharge plans and the needs of patients once they go home. It’s where staff meetings are held and nurses give shift reports.
“This room functions 24/7,” says Kerry Husted, the hospital’s director of oncology. “It’s the end-all/be-all room.”
It’s also a room that shows the ravages of such constant use. “You can imagine the wear and tear on a room that is used 24/7,” Husted says.
The Inpatient Oncology staff came up with a plan to refurbish the room, and Husted took it to a recent meeting of the Grant Review Committee of the Moore Regional Hospital Foundation.
The $50,000 disbursement that the committee approved will fund the sunroom project and help create the comfortable, inviting atmosphere that the Inpatient Oncology staff envisions for the area.
The subtle refurbishments and renovations will include new furniture, a multi-use conference table and millwork with cupboards and counter tops, and will freshen up and revitalize an area that is so important to the work of the department.
“The idea is to create a room that is inviting to patients but useful,” Husted says. “It needs to be warm and comforting.”
During 2005, the Moore Regional Hospital Foundation disbursed nearly $345,607 to fund various FirstHealth projects in Moore County. Recent allocations, in addition to the $50,000 to refurbish the Inpatient Oncology sunroom, include:
n $3,600 to the FirstHealth Dental Care Center-Southern Pines for critical specialty dental care needs for uninsured children
n $15,000 to Moore Regional Hospital’s Pastoral Care department to subsidize guest housing and meal funds for patients and their families
n $10,000 to the hospital’s nursing departments for the purchase of bereavement books and cards and ceramic charms for the families of deceased patients. The items are provided, along with grief education and resources and personal item bags, to the families of patients who have died while hospitalized at Moore Regional.
“Because of the tremendous support of our community, the Foundation is able to fund services, programs and other needs to ensure the care of the entire patient,” says Dr. Robin Cummings, chairman of the Moore Regional Hospital Foundation. “Many of these concerns might otherwise go unaddressed.
“Through the generosity of so many individuals directed toward the hospital through the Foundation, we are able to make sure that our staff, physicians and nurses alike have the tools they need to provide the highest quality care, which often involves patients as well as their families.”
The Foundation’s Kids in Crisis program provides the funding for the Dental Care Center’s specialty services.
“There are some specialty needs that we simply don’t have the expertise as general dentists to handle,” says Dr. Sharon Nicholson Harrell, director of the FirstHealth Dental Care Centers. “I’m not talking about ‘wants or would like to haves.’ I’m talking about critical needs that affect a patient’s well-being.”
Harrell can cite many examples of critical needs that money from the Kids in Crisis program has helped address, but three come immediately to mind:
n A girl with a terrible abscess who couldn’t be completely numbed, even after antibiotics. An oral surgeon was able to sedate her and complete her treatment.
n A 9-year-old boy with an extra tooth that was embedded behind an adult front tooth. An oral surgeon removed the extra tooth and saved the adult tooth.
n A 14-year-old who was severely tongue-tied due to a prominent tissue tag under her tongue. An oral surgeon clipped the extraneous tissue and eliminated the girl’s significant speech problems.
“If I had to use one word to characterize what the funds have meant to our services, I would say ‘hope,’” Harrell says. “We’ve been able to help kids who had no options before. We doctors would shake our heads, saying, ‘They need treatment beyond what we can provide as general dentists, but we don’t have any options here.’ Now we can breathe a sign of relief, because we have an option for them.”
