FirstHealth of the Carolinas

HONORING VETERANS | With Veterans Day on Monday, what better way to finish the week than by honoring those who have served our country. We have dozens of veterans in our FirstHealth family, and their unwavering commitment to our country and the communities we serve is a constant inspiration. A special thank you to Col. Eric Vanek, U.S. Army, for delivering the keynote address at today's celebration. FirstHealth's veterans also received coins in recognition of their dedicated service.

NEWS | FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, including its Hoke and Richmond campuses, has been recognized as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Orthopaedic Surgery by Healthgrades. Moore Regional also earned the 2025 Orthopaedic Surgery Excellence award, placing the hospital among the nation’s top 10% for overall orthopaedic services. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e_ixxsMf

Congratulations to our graduates! On Monday, we proudly celebrated 13 employees who completed the Foundations of Leadership course through FirstU. This program offers valuable educational opportunities, enabling our team members to enhance their current job performance and acquire new skills for career advancement within FirstHealth. The 13 graduates are: Kristi Beil, Michael Braxton, Lisa Crawford, Katie Frazier, Aimee Haley, Maloree Hobson, Teresa Hunt, Lisa McNish, Carissa Mercer, Kristi Myrick, Diow Singthong, Stacy Stratton, and Leslie Stone.

We are thrilled to announce a new partnership with Methodist University. Working with the Nursing School, we have created the Dedicated Education Unit, an innovative clinical education model that provides nursing students with enhanced, hands-on learning experiences.

We were honored to contribute to the North Carolina Nurses Association Nurse Recovery Fund. We know that the recovery from Helene will take months and years. The FirstHealth family is committed to helping people get back on their feet and delivering on our core purpose - To Care for People.

PROVIDER SPOTLIGHT | Meet Misty Pedacchio, a certified physician assistant who has served as a key part of FirstHealth's hospitalist team since 2007. Driven by her passion for health care from an early age, Misty knew in high school that she wanted to work in the medical field. She graduated from Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania with both her undergraduate and master’s degrees in a condensed five-year program. "What I enjoy most about my job is that no day is the same,” she shared. “I love meeting a patient, diagnosing a problem and formulating a plan to help them. It’s incredibly rewarding for them to leave the hospital in a better condition.” She also values the strong sense of community within the hospitalist group and considers her colleagues as her work family. Outside of work, Misty enjoys spending time outdoors, especially by the water, and loves cooking and being with friends and family.

As we seek to streamline care for patients, we are happy to make FirstHealth On the Go available through MyChart. This integration will offer our patients an improved, all-in-one experience for accessing virtual care, appointment requests, test results, prescription refills, bill payments and more. Details about the change: https://lnkd.in/dzzwNe6n

From the "it takes a village" file... We celebrated the opening of our new facility in Whispering Pines today, and we are excited to see how these amazing folks care for people. Our new building offers Convenient Care, Family Medicine and 24-hour fitness services, highlighting our commitment to meet the health and wellness needs of our communities. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eb9YxgbJ

Five decades of service... We honored longterm employees last week, recognizing them for their dedicated service to FirstHealth and the communities we serve. Gay Green, who works in our finance department, and Edward Kelly, who works in food and nutrition services at Moore Regional Hospital, were each honored for more than 50 YEARS of service to our health system. Gay and Ed’s unwavering commitment and decades of contributions have helped shape our workplace culture and impacted countless others.

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT | We are shining the spotlight on CRNA Laura Keown. She is a dedicated member of the FirstHealth family whose journey in health care is inspiring and remarkable. Laura's connection to FirstHealth and her commitment to patient care began long before her official start with our organization in 2009, having been born at Moore Regional Hospital and growing up in Moore County. Laura's career at FirstHealth began as a new graduate nurse in the Coronary Care Unit, where she worked for seven years. In 2016, Laura took a bold step by returning to graduate school full-time, earning her Doctorate in Nursing Practice, Anesthesia concentration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Upon completing her studies in 2019, she returned to FirstHealth as an advanced practice provider and has been an integral part of our anesthesia team ever since. Reflecting on her role as a certified registered nurse anesthetist, Laura said, "I absolutely love my job as a CRNA, and I love my coworkers. We have a fantastic team." Laura’s passion for health care is rooted in her childhood experiences. Growing up with a congenital condition that required annual hospital visits until she was 12, Laura became deeply familiar with the care and kindness of health care professionals. These early interactions shaped her desire to enter the medical field. “Initially, I wanted to be a medical doctor,” recalled Laura. “However, via a circuitous route, I obtained my doctorate in nursing, and I have the best job in the world as a nurse anesthetist.” Outside of her professional life, Laura has deep roots in Moore County. She has lived on the same road her entire life, surrounded by family. Recently married to a retired Army Veteran, Laura enjoys a blended family life with her husband, a 19-year-old daughter studying criminal justice at Sandhills Community College, a 17-year-old son who is the drum major for the Marching Mustangs at North Moore High School, an 8-year-old stepdaughter who is a competition cheerleader and a 2-year-old stepson. The family loves attending Friday night football games and Saturday band competitions, and Laura cherishes the time spent with them. In her free time, Laura also enjoys long walks with her mother, who is also her neighbor, and her two dogs, Rambo the Plott Hound and Athena the Doberman.