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PORTLAND – The communities that are served by Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway and Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington will get a chance in the coming weeks to weigh on on a MaineHealth reorganization that will unify its entities under a single Board of Trustees and combined financial structure.
Stephens Memorial Hospital will hold its panel-based community forum from 5 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 28, in the Harper Conference Center, 193 Main St.
Franklin Memorial Hospital will hold its forum from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 11, in the Bass Room, at the hospital.
MaineHealth, based in Portland, is northern New England’s largest health care system, and is made up of 10 smaller health groups, including Western Maine Health and Franklin Memorial Hospital.
Nine of the 10 entities have agreed to have public forums on the unification move, according to a joint news release sent out by the organizations. One organization, Memorial Hospital in North Conway, N.H., must wait until it clears a regulatory hurdle in New Hampshire before it can move on outreach and procedural votes, the news release said.
The proposal under discussion would create a single system-wide Board of Trustees for MaineHealth. It would also leave in place local boards that would retain significant responsibility for the hospital services and other care delivered in local communities. The inability to deploy resources across the system has become a significant problem for MaineHealth’s community hospitals in recent years, which are under increasing financial pressure because of changes in the way health care is being delivered.
“The good news,” said Bill Caron, president of MaineHealth, “is that, overall, MaineHealth is in strong financial shape. We believe that MaineHealth is positioned, as a system, to deliver the right care in the right place at the right time for all our patients.”
Timothy A. Churchill, Western Maine Health president and chief executive officer and interim chief executive officer of Franklin Memorial Hospital, said, “The new structure being considered leaves in place a strong role for local boards and includes safeguards aimed at making sure communities will continue to receive the services they need.
“The governance proposal under consideration includes local oversight of care quality and the credentialing of doctors and other providers, a continued relationship with local donors, a defined role in the budget and planning process, and oversight of community health initiatives,” Churchill said.
“It is very important we preserve local identity and don’t lose the input of people in our communities,” said Susannah Swihart, chair of the MaineHealth Board of Trustees.
That’s why, Swihart said, the member boards across MaineHealth decided they needed to turn to their local communities for a dialogue about the proposed changes. “Before any final decisions are made, we need to hear from our community stakeholders. We believe we’ve found a balance that allows us to leverage our system resources to deliver care across our service area while maintaining significant local decision making. But we’re anxious to hear if the people in the communities we serve think so as well.”
Throughout the summer, MaineHealth member organizations will be meeting with individuals and community groups to explain the unification proposal and gather feedback. Each member organization also plans to hold one or more community forums open to the public between now and the end of August.
For more information about MaineHealth’s unification dialogue visit www.mainehealth.org/about/unification.
