Pen Bay Healthcare and Waldo County Healthcare have agreed to form a new parent company that will oversee hospitals and related organizations in the two counties.
The new corporation would replace the currently separate Pen Bay and Waldo County Healthcare Boards. The new corporation would have a board consisting of equal representation from the two existing organizations. The new organization would be a member of MaineHealth, which operates numerous hospitals and affiliated health care companies across the state, including Maine Medical Center in Portland.
The 99-bed Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport and 25-bed Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast will be under that new parent corporation but will remain separate hospitals with their own operations and medical staff, according to MaineHealth. The creation of the new parent corporation is pending any regulatory requirements from the state and federal government.
MaineHealth said this formal partnership of being under one corporation will allow both organizations and their medical staffs to continue to work closely together to “develop integrated services and operations which will enhance patient care, improve the health of people in the communities they serve and control the rising cost of health care.”
Over the next year, the organization, its medical staffs and the community will be engaged in a strategic planning process to determine local health care needs and how best to meet those needs as one organization, according to MaineHealth.
“We are very excited about the possibilities this new partnership creates,” stated Pen Bay Healthcare Board Chair David Williams in a news release.
Lee Woodward, chair of the Waldo County Healthcare Board of Trustees, stated in the release that “the boards of both organizations see this as a major step forward for our community and our health care programs. We can continue to collaborate to provide the best health care services for our patients.”
Pen Bay Healthcare includes Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport as well as Quarry Hill retirement village in Camden, the Knox Center for Long Term Care in Rockland, Kno-Wal-Lin home health and hospice and most of the physician practices in Knox County. Pen Bay Healthcare has annual expenses budgeted at $146 million with the PBMC hospital amounting for $89 million of those expenditures.
Maine Department of Health and Human Services spokesman David Sorensen said Wednesday the agency is reviewing, in consultation with the Attorney General’s Office, whether the transaction would be subject to the department’s licensing and regulatory division review.
Mark Biscone, who is chief executive officer of Waldo County Healthcare and interim CEO of Pen Bay Healthcare, pointed out that more than 85 percent of U.S hospitals are part of networks. He said by being part of MaineHealth, Pen Bay and Waldo County have already been able to save millions of dollars through large group purchases of supplies and technology and shared resources and expertise.
“This new partnership is a natural extension for the midcoast,” Biscone said.
MaineHealth reported that through the first six months of the current fiscal year, Pen Bay Healthcare has an operating surplus $187,000. This followed cuts early last year of $2 million in an effort to reduces losses.
Biscone has been head of the Waldo County hospital for more than 31 years. He was appointed Pen Bay’s interim CEO in March 2014, succeeding Wade Johnson, who had served in the CEO post for two years.
The two midcoast health organizations have successfully integrated more than 40 programs since November, he said.
The two hospitals are sharing 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 early last 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.
Pen Bay became a member of MaineHealth in 2012. Waldo County became part of MaineHealth in 2009. MaineHealth is the parent corporation of many Maine hospitals and other health care organizations, with the largest being Maine Medical Center in Portland.