NORTHPORT, Maine — A formal merger of Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport and Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast is not likely, but closer ties are on the way.
That was a theme of a talk given Thursday by Mark Biscone, longtime executive director of the Waldo County hospital and interim CEO of Pen Bay Healthcare for the past eight months.
The two hospitals, which are part of the MaineHealth corporation, have appointed 14 people to a committee to look at increasing shared services. The panel includes seven people representing each hospital in the corporation.
The recommendations are expected to be presented in six months.
Biscone said additional sharing of services is needed to save money for the hospitals so they can recruit and keep medical specialists.
About 25 people turned out for the afternoon presentation at Point Lookout in Northport. One person asked whether a merger was in the offing. Biscone said that was unlikely because the two hospitals are reimbursed differently by the government. But, he said, one thing they are looking at is possible different governing systems.
The sharing of services is important, he said, because the two regions need their combined populations to support specialists. The region served by Pen Bay has about 40,000 residents, and Waldo County General’s population base is about 30,000.
The two hospitals are sharing services, or beginning to share services, that include laundry, marketing and communication, nephrology, home health and hospice, urology, vascular surgery, infectious disease physicians, chief medical information officer, electronic information, cardiopulmonary department manager, coverage for radiology manager’s medical leave, a dentist, grant writing, speech therapy, telepsychiatry service, oncology, echo sonographer and telestroke services.
The oncology sharing generated considerable concern when it was announced earlier this year that Pen Bay was not renewing the contract with now former oncologist Dr. Nadia Ramdin and instead would be sharing the oncologist based out of Belfast. Pen Bay had two oncologists until the end of 2010.
Biscone said sharing the oncologist was working well.
One resident asked at Thursday’s presentation whether the hospital was considering providing transportation for patients from Pen Bay to see the oncologist in Belfast. Biscone said this was something the organizations could look into.
He said discussions to create a central cancer care center, possibly in Lincolnville, were held when former Pen Bay President Wade Johnson was leading the hospital. Johnson resigned in March, and there have been no further discussions on that matter.
The collaboration between the two hospitals has paid off, Biscone said. When he was appointed CEO at Pen Bay, the hospital was on its way to losing $2.7 million for the budget year that ended Oct. 1, 2014. But by Oct. 1, the loss ended up being reduced to $300,000. Biscone said Pen Bay was solidly in the black during October, the first month of the new budget year.
He said Waldo County General was in good financial shape for the year.
The hospital executive said the two hospitals would be signing a contract with Maine Behavioral Health in January to provide mental health services.
He also said he expected the two hospitals and the Miles Campus in Damariscotta would be combining their home health services into one organization during the next 11 months. He said it made no sense to have three administrators overseeing three separate organizations in such a small geographic and population area.