Ahoskie, N.C. – ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan Hospital hosted a community celebration Tuesday to proudly commemorate 75 years of dedicated service to eastern North Carolina.
Established in 1948, the hospital is dedicated to providing exceptional health care services to its community and has expanded and evolved to meet the changing health care needs of the region.
“We are immensely proud to celebrate 75 years of serving our community,” said Brian Harvill, president, ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan. “Throughout the years, we have strived to provide high-quality health care services with a patient-centered approach. Our commitment to excellence and compassionate care for our community has been the driving force behind our success and continues to positively impact those we are proud to serve.”
Situated in Ahoskie, this 114-bed hospital has been a cornerstone of health care, offering comprehensive services to nearly 40,000 residents spanning Hertford, Bertie, Northampton, and Gates counties. ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan Hospital offers a number of specialty services, including behavioral health, cancer care, pain management, wound healing, sleep services, pediatric asthma management and an ECU Health Wellness Center location in Ahoskie. The pediatric asthma program at ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan Hospital helps children in Hertford and Northampton counties miss fewer days of school, participate more fully in physical activities and look forward to a brighter future.
“Over the past 75 years, ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan has been dedicated to providing exceptional health care services, and this milestone marks a testament to its unwavering commitment to the well-being of the community it serves,” said Jay Briley, president of ECU Health Community Hospitals. “These achievements reflect the hospital’s dedication to improving the overall health and well-being of the community. Today is a day to celebrate the contributions of our current team members and those that came before them to help build a legacy of quality, compassionate care.”
Since its founding in 1948, ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan Hospital has continuously evolved to meet the changing health care needs of the community. On Oct. 24, 1948, the original 40-bed hospital celebrated with a community open house, officially welcoming patients on Nov. 1, 1948. ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan Hospital holds the distinction of being the first hospital licensed by the Medical Care Commission, still bearing license number 1, marking it as the first hospital in the nation constructed using federal funds provided by the Hill-Burton Act. In 1952, the facility expanded with the addition of its first wing, accommodating 25 additional beds, followed by another 34-bed expansion. By 1975, an extra 50 beds, 10 intensive care units and a third floor were added. In response to the growing community’s needs, the original structure was replaced, culminating in the dedication of the present-day hospital in 1992.
“As we celebrate 75 years of service, our hospital’s commitment to clinical excellence remains unwavering,” said Dr. David Lingle, chief of staff, surgeon, ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan. “Our legacy is built on a foundation of dedicated health care professionals who continuously strive to reach the highest standards of care, ensuring that every patient receives the best possible treatment, and making each year better than the last. It is an honor to serve alongside such a great team of professionals.”
ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan has achieved numerous milestones throughout its journey, including recertification as a primary stroke center by The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, Get with the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus with Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll and earning accreditation by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer as a Community Cancer Program.
Students from the Brody School of Medicine, ECU College of Nursing, and Department of Physician Assistant Studies participated in the Interprofessional Triage and Emergency Assessment and Management (ITEAM) Day mass casualty training event hosted by the Brody School of Medicine’s Emergency Medicine Interest Group Saturday, Oct. 14. The training provides a unique opportunity for students from different health care disciplines to collaborate and gain hands-on experience in managing emergency events.
Experts from the ECU College of Nursing, Brody School of Medicine, Department of Physician Assistant Studies and ECU Health EastCare gave students interactive instruction in procedural skills, such as basic airway management, hemorrhage control and triage techniques. Students then applied these skills during a mass casualty simulation at the Interprofessional Clinical Simulation Center at the Brody School of Medicine.
“ITEAM Day was beneficial to promote collaboration and interprofessionalism among different health care providers,” said Stephiya Sabu, first year Brody School of Medicine student. “Doing this in the setting of a mass casualty event was important as they can be very stressful, and having this experience beforehand will help in the future if we are ever in that situation.”
This year’s simulation was a mass shooting incident. The Office of Clinical Skills Assessment and Education provided simulated patients, portraying symptoms and behaviors consistent with injuries sustained in a mass shooting, including confusion and panic.
Adding an extra layer of realism to the exercise, the ECU School of Theatre and Dance lent its expertise in moulage and makeup to create lifelike wounds on the simulated patients. The ECU Student Government Association provided funding for food and materials.
Students participating in the simulation were coached by a multi-disciplinary team of experts who provided feedback throughout the training. Chuck Strickland, outreach coordinator with EastCare, served as an instructor and provided invaluable insights into the role Emergency Medical Services (EMS) plays in a mass casualty incident. Students were educated on EMS’s initial response, patient management and treatment strategies.
“It is important for students to know the role EMS plays in initial patient triage and how we would request resources and determine patient destinations,” said Strickland. “EMS identifies the volume of patients and their acuity levels, then gets nurses, physicians and physician assistants to do on-scene care for high acuity patients. Students also learned the role of critical care transport and how those professionals would be engaged.”
Nursing students, medical students and physician assistant students shared their respective expertise while working together to promptly triage and treat patients. Both students and instructors underscored the significance of applying classroom learning to simulated real-life scenarios, highlighting the practical value of such experiences.
“Recent events in our community emphasize the unpredictability of mass casualties and just how terrifying they are,” said Lachlan Younce, first year Brody School of Medicine student. “As a medical student, I seek to understand my role as a medical professional in those situations. Participating in this mass casualty exercise exposed me to vital skills like patient triage, resource-efficient care and the importance of teamwork when working alongside my health care colleagues, including PAs and nurses. I am thankful for how this ITEAM training experience helped me develop my readiness as a medical professional.”
Health and well-being are at the very heart of creating economic vibrancy in a community. That is why Brian Floyd, chief operating officer of ECU Health and president of ECU Health Medical Center, joined a group of statewide health care leaders at the NC Chamber Health Care Conference on a panel titled “Working Together to Create Healthier Communities” on Sept. 14 in Durham.
Speaking to a packed room of health care, business, industry and government leaders from across the state, Floyd spoke about ECU Health’s unique position in eastern North Carolina as both the largest health care system and employer in the 29 county region, and the importance of maintaining high quality and high value care in rural communities.
“Thinking about the NC Chamber and what we’re here to talk about today, it’s important to remember North Carolina is the second largest rural state in the country,” said Floyd. “One-in-three people in North Carolina lives in a rural community so rural health care is a very critical and very personal endeavor. At ECU Health, we take our mission seriously to improve the health and well-being of eastern North Carolina, which is a region with some of the highest levels of poverty in the state.”
ECU Health is a leader in rural health care, Floyd said, and is constantly exploring new ways to improve access to care for rural communities. Speaking to topics such as improving mental health resources, partnering closely with schools, colleges and universities and investing in the health and well-being of team members, Floyd made it clear ECU Health’s role in the East goes far beyond just delivering health care.
“ECU Health is a health care provider, an educator and an economic engine for our 29 county region and we understand that collaboration is key to solving health care challenges,” Floyd said. “When I think about what we do, the reason we have a 974 bed hospital in a town of more than 80,000 people is because of the tremendous burden of disease in the communities we serve. Improving quality and cost is our goal and our clinical care component certainly plays a role in that, but we know that value is created by improving wellness through initiatives that tackle social determinants of health.”
Floyd was joined on the panel by Dr. Art Apolinario, board president of the N.C. Medical Society, Dr. Creagh Milford, senior vice president of retail health for CVS Health and Jennifer Sacks, associate director of the clinical operations program lead for Biogen. The panel was moderated by Gary Salamido, president and CEO of the NC Chamber.
A 2008 alumnus of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University and current ECU Health physician detailed his experiences as a doctor in rural and underserved eastern North Carolina during a July 12 webinar.
ECU Health Duplin Hospitalist Director Jon Kornegay presented “Perspectives on Underserved Care: Being a Physician in Duplin County” through the ECU Global Health and Underserved Populations Program. He also serves as ECU Health Duplin vice chief of staff and Duplin County EMS medical director.
A native of Duplin County and part of a family of physicians, Kornegay has served Duplin County since 2012, creating the hospitalist group that has increased local patient volume and kept Duplin County residents closer to home for quality care. He was named one of ECU’s 2022 “40 Under Forty” honorees.
Kornegay began the talk by saying he reminds medical students and residents that practicing medicine in an underserved area is a unique experience that can enhance their views of medicine.
“It’s a good thing, at some point in your career, to spend a little bit of time in community hospitals,” he said.
Kornegay guided the audience through details of the challenges of health care delivery in a rural county, the expertise of his colleagues that blend to provide a more complete level of care to patients and how ECU Health Duplin, in Kenansville, has grown over the years. He also detailed how the Brody School of Medicine has influenced the approach to care.
Duplin County is nearly two hours from Greenville, with a population of around 50,000, making it a target area for Brody’s mission to serve rural eastern North Carolina and underserved communities.
“Brody had several mission statements when it was developed,” Kornegay said, “and one of the main mission statements was to train providers for eastern North Carolina. Primary caregivers are a really big issue, and we hope we’re addressing that somewhat.”
Kornegay said the health care landscape and its indicators — including that many providers are near or at retirement age — mean recruitment to rural communities needs to increase. Other challenges include patient insurance coverage and the geographical access to complex care facilities.
Kornegay praised ECU Health Duplin’s strong ties to the Brody School of Medicine, including current students and residents as well as seasoned physicians.
“We take kind of a plethora of Brody learners,” he said. “We have third- and fourth-year residents that come to do community rotations with us. This past year, we’ve also started taking ECU rural family medicine residents. All of our attendings have interactions with Brody learners and are kind of staying connected.”
Kornegay’s brothers, who also practice in eastern North Carolina, went to medical school or completed residencies through Brody. Chad Kornegay helped start the medical group in Duplin County in 2010.
“My dad’s been a family practitioner in the area for over 50 years,” Kornegay said, adding that his father retired a few years ago.
The family ties also help build a sense of kinship among the professionals that has resulted in a steady increase in patients served and a reputation for quality care.
In 2011, Kornegay said, there were 5,800 patient encounters through ECU Health Duplin; over the past three years, that number has stayed around 15,500.
“So we’ve almost tripled the service there in about 12 years,” Kornegay said. “We’ve grown the service quite a bit. As a pretty strong group clinically, we’ve had a lot more of a comfort level taking patients than they previously had had here.”
Kornegay shared firsthand accounts of what it was like to be a rural physician in a large, rural county. He told stories about bad car accidents, deliveries of premature babies,
and other emergencies that are made more challenging by remote locations. He also shared his experiences serving during several hurricanes that rendered many areas of Duplin County as islands.
Hurricane Matthew in 2016 presented Kornegay with an opportunity to adopt new skills for future storms.
“I grew up in Duplin County, so I’m used to kind of being around tropical storms and hurricanes,” he said. “But we had never seen anything like this in my lifetime, the amount of water that we got with Hurricane Matthew. And so that presents some challenges, some unique challenges, for us in the health care delivery at the county.”
That experience helped prepare Kornegay and other providers for unforeseen circumstances — and for continuing to live and work the mission of Brody and ECU Health to serve rural eastern North Carolina through challenges from geographical access to natural disasters.
“We really as a county had not recovered from Matthew before Florence came,” he said of the 2018 storm. “We had kind of rehearsed a little bit with Matthew, but one of the things we learned during Florence is you can try to prepare for everything, but you can’t. So you’ve got to be ready to modify and change your game plan when data changes and things change a little bit. When you get that curveball, you may have to pivot a little bit.”
On a February morning, Vietnam veteran Lee Pascasio sat in his brother-in-law’s room on 2 East at ECU Health Medical Center. As Melissa Warren, a nurse on the unit, checked on Willis Johnston Stancill she noticed his blood pressure was spiking, and the team sprung into action.
Pascasio said he watched in silence as the team went to work saving Stancill’s life. He said he’d seen that kind of teamwork before in his time as a Marine. The experience moved Pascasio to gift his Navy Commendation Medal, earned during his service in Vietnam, to Melissa Warren and the rest of the 2 East team. Now, it hangs in the hall of the unit on top of the stars of the American Flag for all to see.
“This is such a great team,” Warren said. “It’s such a well-oiled machine, it’s like we’re dancing almost when something crazy like that happens. It’s not like you have to ask somebody to do something. We just kind of do it, that’s the team. If something happens, the troops are coming in.”
A Medal Earned
Pascasio recalled his time in Vietnam vividly. During his second tour in Vietnam, Pascasio said at 25 years old he was an old man compared to the rest of the First Battalion, Ninth Marine Unit, where he served as sergeant, specializing in explosives.
On June 30, 1969, Pascasio said he was at Vandegrift Combat Base with the Ninth Marine Unit and another platoon in Vietnam. That day, rockets and mortars began to hit the battalion without warning. A lieutenant was killed in the attack, leaving Pascasio in charge. Pascasio sent a sergeant to get a corpsman while he administered first aid to the wounded. When the medevac eventually arrived, Pascasio helped load the dead and wounded Marines so they could receive further care.
Two years later, Pascasio was presented with the Navy Commendation Medal at Camp Lejeune.
Appreciating a Care Team
In the days following his brother-in-law’s incident on 2 East, Pascasio shared his appreciation in the form of tacos, donuts, coffee, cheesecake, Cracker Jacks and other snacks.
“He’s just so appreciative,” Warren said. “I can’t give like a superhero story or anything about that night. It was what we do. It’s nice to have him, or anybody, recognize what we do. It’s a demanding job with your emotions, high energy, physically, everything. So it is nice for somebody to care that much when we’re just doing our job.”
For Pascasio, the treats weren’t enough to show his appreciation.
“I said, ‘You know what? I want to do something nice for these people.’ They just saved my brother’s life. He got the best care in the world right here at 2 East,” Pascasio said. “I thought about Melissa and her team of crackerjacks on 2 East and I said, ‘This medal isn’t going to buy her a cup of coffee, but it’s straight from the heart.'”
“It was about their teamwork to save a life and the concern that we should all have. The nurses and teachers who have been through COVID are overlooked.”
Stancill passed away in May, but Pascasio said he still lives in his heart and in the heart of his wife, Emily Pascasio. He continues to be grateful for the care Stancill received, which Warren and her colleagues continue to find meaningful.
“This is for the whole unit,” Warren said. “I mean, you see the support of all the staff out there. They’re amazing. We are like family. When I come to work, when I walk in, we’re hugging each other. None of us could do this alone.”
ECU Health nurses from every area of expertise across the health system gathered on June 20 at the East Carolina Heart Institute for the 10th annual ECU Health Nursing Summit where they shared best practices and innovations that will help chart the future of nursing in eastern North Carolina.
Titled “Connecting with: Minds, Hearts and Purpose,” nursing leaders at ECU Health designed the summit to acknowledge what nurses have experienced over the last three years, including what the COVID pandemic taught them as professional nurses, what they have lost and what it will take to move nursing forward together, according to Trish Baise, ECU Health chief nursing executive.
“With the ever-changing health care environment, it is important for ECU Health nurses to hear from state and national colleagues,” said Baise. “We are proud to welcome experts who are making a positive difference in the field by advocating and influencing policy, as well as nurturing innovations that address the workforce, the nurse practice environment and the health and wellness of nurses.”
In total, more than 178 nurses attended the summit, which was held face-to-face for the first time since 2019. Topics included policy advocacy, building positive environments, communicating across generations, self-care and wellness. The summit featured presenters from both ECU Health team members and experts from other areas, including North Carolina State Senator Gale Adcock and keynote speaker Katie Boston-Leary, director of nursing programs for the American Nurses Association.
“The Nursing Summit gave me ideas, things to research and refreshed my mind to help navigate this different health care world that we live in,” said Paula Bush, MIU manager at ECU Health Edgecombe Hospital.
The summit also served as an opportunity for ECU Health nurses across various levels of expertise and experience to connect directly with health system leadership, fostering a sense of community among health system nurses.
“Sharing best practices from both within and outside the health system helps spark a culture of innovation within nursing,” said Daphne Brewington, ECU Health system vice president of nursing excellence. “When we harness the expertise of our nurses, we can lead improvements and create environments where nurses thrive here at ECU Health.”
The Maynard Children’s Hospital at ECU Health Medical Center is celebrating its 10th year of offering high-quality, compassionate care in a soothing environment for patients and families in eastern North Carolina.
Dr. Matthew Ledoux, pediatrician in chief at Maynard Children’s Hospital, said the children’s hospital has immensely benefited the youngest patients in the East and made for more seamless care.
“The children’s hospital itself has given us the opportunity to grow services – we started an ECMO program, we’ve started and developed a dedicated Children’s Transport Team that flies all over the region and picks up kids and brings them back here,” Dr. Ledoux said. “The fact that we have all the subspecialty care, we have all the surgical care and generalized pediatric care here makes all the difference. It’s really a shining light in the East.”
Over the past 10 years, countless improvements have been made that have positively impacted the lives of many children and their families in eastern North Carolina. Other key expansions included the Pediatric Day Medical Unit, Pediatric Radiology Unit, and Pediatric Pharmacy among several other additions.
Kim Crickmore, PhD, RN, senior vice president for Women’s and Children’s Hospital and Community Health Programs, said the Maynard Children’s Hospital is an integral part of health care in eastern North Carolina today. Over the last 10 years, the children’s hospital has delivered more than 37,000 babies, with more 61,000 inpatient admissions, 216,000 emergency cases, 223,000 outpatient cases and an additional 700,000 pediatric outpatient visits through the ECU pediatric outpatient center.
“When we consider the impact to the region over the last 10 years, it’s really unbelievable,” Crickmore said. “It means so much to us here at the hospital that we’ve been able to provide care, primarily under one roof and unite all the services and to be the destination in eastern North Carolina for children who are sick or injured and need the specialty care we provide.”
Crickmore and Dr. Ledoux both said one of the services they are most proud of is the Children’s Transport team. The team consists of intensive-care trained nurses and respiratory therapists skilled in providing the specialty care many children need from the onset of transport to arrival at Maynard Children’s Hospital. Crickmore said it has been an intentional focus to build the program over the last five years and the program has seen many successes.
The Space
The amenities offered in the under-the-sea-themed Maynard Children’s Hospital are designed with patients and families in mind. Soothing young patients in a health care setting is no small task, but the children’s hospital is uniquely equipped to handle the challenge.
Dr. Ledoux said the community has stepped up time and again to provide resources and make donations that make a real difference for patients and families.
When thinking about his favorite area of the Maynard Children’s Hospital, Dr. Ledoux came back to the light tower, which can be seen when driving past the hospital. He said it’s a reminder of why he, and every children’s hospital team member, shows up to work every morning – to take care of the youngest patients in eastern North Carolina. He said he’s often asked what the colors on the light tower mean when people drive by at night.
“The reason is, we’re generally celebrating a child, we’re celebrating the end of a treatment, they’ve finished chemotherapy, or maybe they’ve been in the NICU for two or three months and they’re getting to go home,” Dr. Ledoux said. “We really try to make sure that the families and children get to pick the color and the time, but any time you see the color change anything different from our usual light blue, we’re celebrating a child and a family so it’s pretty exciting.”
Into the Future
Crickmore and Dr. Ledoux both said the next 10 years are something they’re looking forward to with the Maynard Children’s Hospital. They hope to continue expanding services and looking more to the region to bring specialty care closer to home for patients and families.
Dr. Ledoux said he and other physicians in the system have enjoyed their time spent in the region and the ability to help patients and bring key services closer to home for patients makes it special.
“I think the biggest thing is the distance that people have to travel,” Dr. Ledoux said. “We know that it’s a very underserved population and there’s a lot of poverty. People have challenges paying for gas or even having a car. The closer we can be to them to provide those services, the better.”
Another upcoming project that will impact pediatric patients in the East is the behavioral health hospital, slated to open in Greenville in 2025. ECU Health is partnering with Acadia Healthcare to build the state-of-the-art facility that will feature 24 inpatient beds specifically for children and adolescents with mental health needs. These beds will be the first of their kind in ECU Health’s 29-county service area and the only child and adolescent beds within 75 miles of Greenville, North Carolina.
Join us in celebrating the Maynard Children’s Hospital and all of its team members for the last 10 years of service to eastern North Carolina.
“I was really apprehensive about it because I’ve always been at one little hospital,” said Suzanne Foster, a travel nurse with ECU Health, “so it was a little intimidating coming to a larger hospital.”
Suzanne Foster isn’t the only nurse who found herself looking for new and different opportunities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I wanted to try travel, nursing and experience other facilities,” said Foster, “but I have a husband and a son that I dearly love and do not want to be away from. The fact that I can drive home at night is huge.”
She can do both thanks to the ECU Health Travel Staffing program. It’s an innovative approach to recruiting driven by the ever-changing health care industry and the need to meet nurses where they are.
“For an organization of our size to develop its own staffing agency is significant in the innovation of nursing care and staffing hospitals,” said Dennis Campbell, ECU Health Beaufort Hospital, a campus of ECU Health Medical Center interim president. “It’s no secret that there is a nationwide shortage of staff nurses and nurses are more mobile today than they have ever been.”
“I was getting a little bit burnt out in my current role, which frankly after COVID, I think a lot of us needed just a change of scenery,” Foster said.
“The travel staffing program mimics any other staffing agency. The difference is it’s ours,” said Campbell.
Since the start of the program, the system has hired more than 500 clinical team members. Of those, 89% have opted to extend their assignments.
“The team, everybody that you encounter is extremely considerate and thankful to have you on board,” Foster said. “Working at ECU Health has been wonderful.”
To learn more about the ECU Health Travel Staffing Program visit: https://careers.ecuhealth.org/pages/vidant-health-travel-staffing-program.
At ECU Health, the support team members provide to each other makes a difference – not only to those team members but also to the patients we serve across eastern North Carolina.
Recently, three ECU Health nurses were inducted into the East Carolina University (ECU) College of Nursing Hall of Fame while another earned a scholarship as she pursues her doctorate in nursing. These four ECU Health nurses each said the support of fellow nurses has uplifted them throughout their careers and the scholarship and inductions into the Hall of Fame is a reflection of that support.
Learn more about the honorees below.
Amy Campbell
Amy Campbell, quality nurse specialist at ECU Health, has been with the system for about 18 years over two separate stops.
Campbell started at ECU Health Medical Center as an associate degree nurse in pediatrics and said she was quickly encouraged and supported by fellow nurses and leaders to join the HomeGrown program, which helps team members go back to school and balance their work and school responsibilities, and she received her bachelor’s degree from ECU in 2001. Campbell left ECU Health to teach at Pitt Community College and ultimately returned to the health system with a master’s degree. During her second stop at ECU Health, she said she was once again supported to further her education and pursue a doctorate degree, which she completed in 2020.
“A lot of executives were so encouraging for me to get my Ph.D. and I was HomeGrown and I was able to do my research here so they really were supportive all along,” Campbell said. “I also went through the Ph.D. program with a lot of my colleagues here so that was really great, too. I couldn’t have done it if people hadn’t given me time to do my research and to go to school.”
Campbell is a Williamston native and she said the rural aspect of the care ECU Health provides for the region is close to her heart.
The close-knit communities of eastern North Carolina transfer over to the hospital setting where Campbell said it’s a family atmosphere for team members and the patients they serve.
“I believe that at ECU Health we really do rise by lifting others and people really try to make sure others get time in the spotlight, even though, if you ask any of the four of us, we really don’t like this spotlight,” Campbell said. “But for me, I’m able to embrace it because I want all those people who supported me to have their moment with me. I’m a single mom, I’ve been a single mom for 19 years, but I’ve had a wonderful family here. Everyone has always been so good and supportive of school or whatever I was going through to help me be successful.”
Angela Still
Angela Still, senior administrator of Women’s Services at ECU Health Medical Center, said she was humbled to join her colleagues who have been inducted into the ECU College of Nursing Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2023.
Still has been with the health system for 36 years and is a 1986 graduate of ECU. As a Greenville native, Still said the opportunity to care for and support women in eastern North Carolina is special to her.
“The needs of the patients and families in our region, the disparities, and the social determinants of health are so different from what the rest of the state deals with every day,” Still said. “Our 29 counties are comparable to the size of some states but it’s rural. Access to care, access to healthy food, these are unique needs. At this point in my career I am not impacting the individual patient and family, I’m working to impact the region. It’s a population of mothers and babies that we want to be healthier because they are our future in the region.”
Still said that during her time at ECU Health, she’s been the beneficiary of great leadership and mentors and she’s been happy to give that back to the next generation of nurses as they rise through the system and across the state.
She said it’s crucial to invest time and energy into mentorship as it will make a difference for the individual, those they mentor in the future and the patients they serve.
“The opportunity to mentor people through my career has been just really amazing. I have people across the state I mentored that are not with the system anymore and they still call me to ask questions or just look for guidance,” Still said. “So just being able to make an impact on the people that are going to care for others is very special to me. We’re all eventually going to retire, so being able to mentor and guide folks that are going to be here long after I’ve left and are going to continue to carry that torch and make a difference for our communities, it’s a big deal.”
Georgia Perry
Georgia Perry is the nurse manager on 2 North Medicine and 2 North Progressive Care at ECU Health Medical Center and was also inducted into the ECU College of Nursing Hall of Fame this year.
Perry said the night of the induction into the Hall of Fame was special for her as she had a chance to look into the crowd gathered and see mentors, some of whom nominated Perry for the recognition.
Perry earned her bachelor’s degree from ECU in 2010 and began working at ECU Health as part of the very first New Grad Nurse Residency Program class. She started working on 2 South, became an assistant nurse manager, and eventually became the nurse manager on her current unit. She received her master’s degree in 2015 and said the backing of fellow nurses and leaders alike made going back to school a manageable task.
“I tell people all the time, if you can dream it, you can do it here,” Perry said. “I truly feel like the support system is really what makes it easy to go back to school to be able to juggle it all. There’s a wealth of mentors here, you can pick up the phone and call anybody and it doesn’t matter if it’s across service lines.”
Perry is a Newton Grove native and said working in rural medicine is important to her because she grew up in a rural area.
“I think it’s wonderful that we have such great access to really all specialties right down the road,” Perry said. “My family actually will travel and get to ECU Health Duplin Hospital and then have access to the tertiary center, so we live it. I’m really grateful for what we have here at ECU Health and I’m glad to be a piece of the impact we have on this region.”
She added that the team around her keeps her going while the patients they serve inspire her to bring her best each day.
Lauren Nichols
Inductees into the Hall of Fame help fund a scholarship for ECU College of Nursing students. Lauren Nichols, a staff nurse on the Cardiac Intermediate Unit at ECU Health Medical Center, earned a scholarship from the fund for this year.
Nichols, who has been working at ECU Health for seven years, is pursuing a doctorate in nursing with a family nurse practitioner specialty at ECU.
Nichols is from Edgecombe County and said she chose to work at ECU Health and continue her education at ECU because of the health system’s commitment to rural health care and eastern North Carolina.
“ECU Health’s mission really resonates with me,” Nichols said. “Growing up in such a rural community makes me want to do my part to help improve the health of the people of eastern North Carolina.”
She said she never doubted her decision to go back to school because of the support she has received, especially from nursing leadership.
Join the Team
ECU Health nurses make an incredible impact every day across eastern North Carolina. Learn more about opportunities to work alongside these amazing nurses and so many others here.
When Lauren Moore, a fourth-year student at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, begins her residency training at ECU Health Medical Center in July it will mark the beginning of a new chapter in her deeply personal family medicine journey. With a love for health care passed down from her parents, including her late mother, Moore’s next step is another toward her ultimate goal: making a difference in the lives of countless eastern North Carolina community members.
Moore’s experience with health care goes far beyond her medical school training. Her father is a physician’s assistant and she was naturally drawn to the connections he made in the community. Growing up in Farmville and attending school in Greenville, she recalls countless instances where he was stopped in places like the grocery store, catching up with a long-time patient or offering helpful advice.
“Growing up, people would come up to us and be like, ‘Mr. Eddie, how are you doing?’ I’d ask, ‘Dad, who is that?’ He’d say, ‘Oh, a patient that I’ve had for ten years now.’ I would think, ‘That is amazing,’” Moore said. “And even recently, ever since I’ve matched at ECU Health, just within the past few weeks, I’ve had several people from my Bible study at my church that have said, ‘You know, I’ve been needing to get a primary care doctor.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m your person!’ It just feels good that they trust me enough to one day be their doctor and to have those personal connections and be able to serve them to make sure their health is taken care of.”
She also experienced the health care profession from the patient perspective through her mother’s cancer journey. When Moore was seven years old, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time and was declared cancer free after about a year of treatment.
Then, six years later, she was re-diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, which spread to her liver and brain. Moore’s mother passed in June of 2010. She reflected on the care her mom received and how the care teams went above and beyond for patients and families alike. Moore learned what it meant to be a compassionate care giver and she said she’s prepared to bring that same compassion to her future patients.
“Seeing her go through that and seeing the way that her physicians were able to play such a vital role in not only her life, but also my family’s life and making sure that we were OK even after the fact,” Moore said. “If my dad was walking through the hospital, my mom’s physicians would check in on him and ask how he was doing and if he needed anything. So it wasn’t that they were just taking care of my mom as a patient, but they were also taking care of the rest of her life, too. That had such a tremendous impact on me. My goal is not only to care for my patients the same way my dad does, but also to make the families feel the same way that those physicians made me feel.”
Brody Matches
Moore is one of 77 Brody medical students poised to begin their residency at hospitals across the country, following an emotional Match Day ceremony in March and commencement in May. For Moore, who wants to practice family medicine in the region in which she grew up, matching to ECU Health Medical Center was always the goal.
“Being a medical student at Brody and seeing the patient population that we have here, I think that’s really what drew me to ECU Health,” said Moore. “The fact that it serves patients throughout the 29 counties in eastern North Carolina who otherwise wouldn’t have a primary care provider or a Level I trauma center if it wasn’t for us. I was drawn to the educational opportunities given the uniqueness of our patients and everybody in the residency program is just so welcoming and nice. I know it’s family medicine, but it is also like a family there.”
Photo Courtesy of ECU News Services
Match Day at Brody marked a milestone for the Class of 2023, whose medical school journey included the historic events of learning through the COVID-19 pandemic and the integration of Brody and then-Vidant Health, which became ECU Health in 2022.
Match Day is arguably the pinnacle of medical school, when students discover where they will train during their residency, surrounded by friends, family and Brody faculty and staff who have guided them over the years.
The Class of 2023 is a snapshot of Brody’s mission to serve the state. The 77 members of the graduating class represent more than 25 North Carolina counties, from Buncombe in the west to Pasquotank in the northeast.
ECU Health Medical Center had an excellent Match Day, according to Dr. Herb Garrison, associate dean for Graduate Medical Education, with 98 medical students matching into the 12 main residency programs. Twenty-six of the students, or 27%, will graduate from North Carolina medical schools, including 16 students from ECU’s Brody School of Medicine. Brody’s most recent class features the most medical students who will begin their residency at ECU Health Medical Center in July.
“We’re thrilled for this class to start their residencies across the country and we’re especially excited about how many will be staying with us at ECU Health Medical Center,” Dr. Garrison said. “This group had their first year of medical school disrupted by the start of COVID and I’m so proud of the way they supported each other through that experience. I’m just excited, as I am every year, to see these skilled and highly trained students start their careers and share everything they’ve learned here with the rest of the world.”
A Rural Legacy
Dr. Mott Blair’s journey to his post as a physician at ECU Health Family Medicine – Wallace is not totally unlike Moore’s. Dr. Blair’s father was a doctor in Duplin County beginning in 1949.
Dr. Blair shared that his father was a primary care physician who also took up obstetrics and did home deliveries for many families. Seeing his father’s connection with patients and families in his home town lead him directly to his own career in medicine.
He attended the Brody School of Medicine – then called ECU School of Medicine – and graduated in 1987, alongside his brother. He matched with ECU Health Medical Center – then called Pitt County Memorial Hospital – and began practicing in Wallace after his three-year residency. He said his decisions to attend Brody, make Greenville his first choice for residency, establish a practice in his rural hometown and eventually partner with the ECU Health system have all been rewarding for himself and beneficial for the patients he serves.
“I feel like the mission of the medical school was a mission that I wanted to take on and I think I’ve been successful in doing that,” Dr. Blair said. “I think the credit in being able to do that goes to the medical school and now the medical center as well. I really think that what we’re doing now, particularly as we support practices across the eastern region of the state, is a crucial thing to put in place, because health care in rural North Carolina is so difficult and we need to have true rural primary care.”
Dr. Blair said that he knows his time at Brody prepared him well for the challenges of residency and he has seen the same for other Brody graduates whom he’s connected with as residents.
For first year residents, he said it’s a new kind of challenge and learning curve, just like those experienced in the first year of medical school and the first year of rotations, but sticking to the same habits that got residents where they are will make all the difference.
“Work hard, study hard. Getting through residency the first year is a lot of hard work,” Dr. Blair said. “So enjoy it and it will go by fast and it will seem like a distant memory pretty quickly. Coming out of Brody, you’ll be well prepared. I found the preparation for me was excellent. You have to be patient with the pace in medicine. It changes rapidly and has really changed a lot since I’ve been in practice and continues to do so.”
In line with the Brody School of Medicine’s mission to increase the number of primary care physicians who serve North Carolina, 52% of the 2023 Brody class matched into primary care residencies — including obstetrics and gynecology — and 44% matched to residency programs in North Carolina.
Moore and Dr. Blair are just two examples of the importance of the Brody School of Medicine and ECU Health connection. Developing high-quality, compassionate physicians for a region in need helps meet the organizations’ combined mission to improve the health and well-being of eastern North Carolina.
“Developing great primary care providers for rural areas is at the core of what we do at Brody and within ECU Health” said Dr. Michael Waldrum, CEO of ECU Health and dean of Brody. “Working as rural health care professionals is hard but we’re working together to train doctors that will care for the whole patient, their physical and emotional health, and I think we’ve been successful in doing that. We have students, professors, residents and doctors that really understand that side of health care and their work in that space leaves a legacy that we can all be proud of.”