FirstHealth Employees Awarded Fayetteville Business Journal’s Health Care Heroes Award for 2024

FAYETTEVILLE – FirstHealth of the Carolinas is proud to recognize Susan Beaty, MSN, R.N., and Anastasia Jennings, MSN, R.N., as recipients of Fayetteville Business Journal’s Health Care Heroes Award for 2024. Beaty was named a winner in the Healthcare Executive category and Jennings was named a winner in the Nurse category. In addition, we would like to recognize Tracy Overton Pritchard, AGPCNP, and the FirstHealth CARE Suite as awards finalists. The Health Care Heroes Awards honors individuals and organizations that are making an impact on the quality of health care in Fayetteville.

Beaty has served as the vice president Eastern region and administrator of MRH-Hoke since its opening on Oct. 7, 2013, bringing more than 20 years of nursing leadership to the role. In her previous role, she served for five years as administrative director of oncology services at FirstHealth. She has overseen several expansion projects at MRH-Hoke to elevate the quality and capacity of care provided, including a $12.9 million construction project to expand the emergency department, surgical services and administrative suite at MRH-Hoke. Plans are underway for future expansion. Beaty is a champion for employee engagement and leads organization wide efforts to create the best place to work in health care.

Jennings stepped into a new role as nurse executive at MRH-Hoke on March 18, 2024. Prior to her new role, she served as nurse manager for the emergency department and med/surg at MRH-Hoke. With her innovative ideas and collaborative efforts across the system, Jennings helps foster a supportive and nurturing environment, ensuring every member of the nursing team feels valued and empowered as they carry out the FirstHealth core purpose To Care for People.

Pritchard is a nurse practitioner with FirstHealth Interventional Pain Medicine in Raeford. She has been a FirstHealth employee for more than 20 years, having started as a nursing assistant in the PACU and later transitioning to a floor registered nurse on several units. Her most recent role was as Clinical Nurse Leader for FirstHealth Interventional Pain Medicine.

The FirstHealth CARE Suite is an innovative program that identifies and eliminates barriers to improving the health and well-being of patients and the community through collaboration with health care partners and community resources that assist with transportation, housing, utilities, food support, finances and more.

The finalists were profiled in a special Health Care Heroes section in the Nov. 1 issue of the Business Journal and the winners were recognized at the Health Care Heroes Awards ceremony on Nov. 7. Congratulations to all our Health Care Heroes Awards winners and finalists.