BY BRENDA BOUSER

Special to The Pilot

Disbursements from the FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital Auxiliary's Special Projects Fund will exceed $40,000 during the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

The total includes $4,564 for the first-time funding of supplies and books for FirstHealth's FirstQuit tobacco-cessation program. The money will provide items for inpatient "busy bags," outpatient "quit kits," nicotine replacement therapy gum bags for hospital visitors, and "Steve's Story" books for use in FirstQuit classes. These items will help patients deal with nicotine withdrawal during hospital treatment or assist tobacco-using hospital visitors refrain from using tobacco while they are on a FirstHealth campus.

Also receiving Auxiliary funding are the following:

n FirstHealth Mobile Health Services, $6,500 for blood pressure cuffs and glucose monitors: Funding will allow Mobile Health Services to provide blood pressure cuffs and/or glucose monitors and test strips to low-income, uninsured individuals who require continued monitoring. It is hoped that the supplies will help these patients avoid a medical crisis by managing their health issues at home.

n FirstHealth Behavioral Services, $1,000 for a clothing closet: Funding will provide clothing and undergarments for needy Behavioral Services inpatients.

n FirstHealth Guest Services, $4,000 to the Toymakers program: Each year, volunteer Toymakers make about 6,000 hand-made items, mostly stuffed animals and walker bags, for distribution to Moore Regional Hospital patients. (See the accompanying story.)

n Moore Regional Lactation Program, $1,000 for a Breast Pump Rental Fund: Auxiliary funds underwrite the rental costs of electric breast pump units for qualified low-income patients. The fund, which is supervised by the hospital's lactation counselor, provides a bridge for parents and their newborns until they can acquire breast pumps from the county WIC program.

n FirstHealth Response, $10,584 for equipment rental funding: The Auxiliary sponsors about 22 subscriptions per year for this program, which helps aging or infirm individuals live independently. The Auxiliary has sponsored subscriptions for the program since 1997.

n Moore Regional Hospital Emergency Department, $2,000 for a clothing closet: Since victims who come to the Emergency Department to be treated for sexual assault must surrender their clothes as evidence, the Emergency Department staff keeps a supply of clothing for them as well as for an increasing number of other patients who need replacement clothes.

n FirstHealth Home Care Services, $7,500 for a Patient Care Fund: This fund assists patients who are discharged from the hospital to the care of FirstHealth Home Care Services but are unable to meet basic personal or household needs. The funds bridge a gap so that such needs as food, gas and electric service can be met while long-term arrangements are made.

n FirstHealth Community Health Services, $3,500 for the Kids in Crisis Fund: Kids in Crisis serves Moore County public school children from low-income families who have been identified by a school nurse as having a critical health care need that is not covered by health insurance. The fund, managed by the Moore Regional Hospital Foundation, has provided medications and hearing, vision and mental health services as well as referrals for chronic, specialty and emergency care. This year, additional Auxiliary money funded a program to provide non-perishable emergency nourishment to students complaining of hunger-related issues.

In addition to these 2012-2013 Special Projects grants, the Auxiliary awarded $4,299.40 in unallocated funds from its 2011-2012 budget to the FirstHealth Pulmonary Rehabilitation program. The funds were used to purchase new resistance training equipment for the Pulmonary Rehab program, which is housed in the FirstHealth Center for Health & Fitness-Southern Pines.

Brenda Bouser works for the corporate communications office of FirstHealth of the Carolinas.