Stories about Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems
EMHS signs deal with Portland’s Mercy Health
Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and Portland’s Mercy Health System of Maine moved one step closer to merging Monday by inking a deal more than a month after initially announcing their plans to join forces. EMHS and Mercy signed a “definitive agreement” in which Mercy and all of its divisions, including ...
EMHS bid for Portland hospital brings questions about effect on patients
A move by Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems to plant stakes for the first time in southern Maine through a merger with Mercy Health System is raising questions about how the deal will affect patients. Mercy has signed a letter of intent to merge with Brewer-based EMHS after a planned deal ...
Boston health care suitor didn’t trust Mercy’s numbers, memo reveals
A confidential memo made public on Monday by The Boston Globe shed light on the breakdown of talks between Mercy Health System of Maine and Boston’s Steward Health Care System. Steward “unilaterally withdrew” from negotiations with Mercy, Chris Murphy, director of media relations for Steward, told presidents of the company’s ...
Portland area now accounts for most of state’s economy. What happens to the rest of Maine?
The economic shift to Maine’s south has become so pronounced during the last decade that Greater Portland now generates more than half the state’s economic output and one-third of its jobs, as the economies of other Maine cities have been relatively flat and rural regions decline. While conceding Portland’s geographic ...
POLL QUESTION
Woman’s work to build cancer hospitality house recognized at Brewer event
BREWER, Maine — Sarah Robinson was playing drums in a garage band with her bass-playing twin Lindsay Turner when one day in 2010, while playing “Brown Eyed Girl,” she started having trouble keeping the beat. “I kind of harassed her — I can do that; I’m her sister,” Turner recalled ...
Penobscot Community Health Care joins effort to improve health of Medicare patients
BREWER, Maine — Penobscot Community Health Care is the latest Maine health organization to join a national effort that rewards doctors for keeping their patients healthy and happy. PCHC announced Monday that it will join Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems’ “accountable care organization,” a group of providers tasked with better coordinating ...
As whooping cough spikes, Aroostook hospital vaccinates employees
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A rise in whooping cough across the state that has intensified in recent weeks is prompting The Aroostook Medical Center to offer free vaccines to its employees. In the last two weeks alone, whooping cough cases reported in Maine this year have jumped from 80 to ...
LifeFlight raising money to add airplane to its fleet of helicopters
LifeFlight of Maine is raising money to add an airplane to its fleet of two helicopters in response to growing demand for air ambulance services. Adding a third aircraft is expected to allow the statewide service to treat up to 300 more patients a year by freeing up the maxed-out ...
$55,000 taken from Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems fundraising nonprofit
BANGOR, Maine — A former employee of the charitable arm of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems has been accused of taking roughly $55,000 from the nonprofit. Healthcare Charities discovered the missing funds in early March through a regular accounting review, according to President and CEO Michael Crowley. The organization is investigating, ...
Bangor-area hospital patients among happiest in nation
The surveys ask how well doctors and nurses communicated with patients, managed their pain and explained their treatment.
Building to be named for man who died outside Down East hospital
MACHIAS, Maine — Down East Community Hospital will dedicate its Medical Associates Building on Saturday afternoon in memory of Reid Wilder Emery. Emery died in 2008 after walking away from the hospital in a snowstorm, precipitating a long series of events, inspections and court actions that led to Eastern Maine ...
Genetics institute to terminate central research function
BANGOR, Maine — Once touted as the ascendant economic star of Eastern Maine, the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health will discontinue the centerpiece of its biomedical research program in September, according to an official of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, the research institute’s corporate parent. Dr. Erik Steele, EMHS’ ...
CONTRIBUTORS
Patient co-pilot checklist for safety — Part 1
(This is the first in a two-part series about a patient-driven checklist for their safe hospital care. It discusses the rationale for such a checklist. The second column will be the recommended checklist.) I used to think that if my nursing staff and my colleagues and I all did our ...
Local health care providers pledge support to reduce hospital infections and errors
BREWER, Maine — Despite widespread concern about the cost and quality of health care in the United States, the incidence of hospital-acquired infections, errors, accidents and other costly complications continues to grow. In addition, patients transitioning from hospital to home often suffer preventable relapses and are rehospitalized. On Monday, federal ...
Medical officials target Somerset County’s poor health rankings
PALMYRA, Maine — Somerset County ranks near the top among Maine counties in a lot of ways, but some of the county’s numbers in the medical and health realm are of rather dubious distinction. With the county tied for having the most overweight residents of any county and dead last ...
Leaders stress importance of early education to business
BANGOR, Maine — Approximately 35,000 Maine children under the age of 5 have no access to early education programs that studies show would significantly improve their futures, according to a report from a national business organization. Three area businessmen — John Bragg, president of N.H. Bragg and Sons, Arthur Comstock, ...
Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems joins regional purchasing collaborative
BREWER, Maine — Twenty-eight New England health care systems, including Brewer-based Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and Portland-based MaineHealth, have joined forces in a new purchasing company, the Northeast Purchasing Coalition LLC. According to a statement released Tuesday by EMHS, the company represents more than 100 hospitals across all six New ...
POLL QUESTION
High-pressure fundraising calls prompt effort to reduce potential for scams
BANGOR, Maine — A Bangor legislator is working on a bill that he hopes will reduce the potential for scams by creating a set of standards for third-party vendors who raise money specifically through telephone solicitation. Rep. Doug Damon, a Republican representing House District 15 in Bangor, said he was ...
Move and Improve fitness program under way in Bangor
Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the enrollment deadline for Move and Improve as Feb. 27. The correct information is below. BANGOR, Maine — The 14th season of the Move and Improve fitness program kicked off on Sunday with an energetic afternoon gathering at the Fields4Kids activity ...
Winter is the time to move and improve
Couchbound residents of wintry northern Maine are encouraged to blow the dust off their sneakers and sign up for the 14th annual Move and Improve fitness program, sponsored by Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems in Brewer. The free, 12-week program runs from the end of February through the end of May, ...
Police find remains believed to be Nichole Cable, 15, in Old Town woods
Orono man facing murder charge in connection with death of missing Glenburn teen
Items found, authorities pursuing leads in search for Glenburn teen
LePage hopes to eliminate income tax by end of second term
Central High principal placed on administrative leave with pay after police charges
Obama’s boyfriend line
Ignore LePage politics, get to root of DHHS funding needs
Nichole Cable: In our minds, hearts
Basketball season never ends for Worcesters of Washburn, a family of 1,000-point scorers
UMaine narrows candidate list, hopes to name men’s hockey coach next week
Eastport teen notches first ‘Bandolero’ racing victory
Not even chemotherapy could quell Maine woman’s longing to be in the kitchen
Keyboardist Ray Manzarek of The Doors dies at age 74
Fun, informative or just plain strange: 8 museums in Maine worth a road trip
Penobscot Theatre Company ends season with whirlwind production of ‘Around the World in 80 Days’
