Children and teens in rural areas often face barriers, such as travel time, when accessing healthcare, whether they’re sick or seeking preventive treatment. In Lincoln County, School Based Health Clinics (SBHCs) have helped address these obstacles. But a few years ago, as mental health needs for rural youth increased and then the COVID pandemic [...]

Since joining MaineHealth as the Vice President of Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) in 2014, Paul Chausse has implemented innovation methodologies to streamline his team’s operations and reduce significant processing backlogs. At the beginning of COVID-19, the MaineHealth RCM team had nearly 70 vacant positions and Paul was seeing a high turnover rate. RCM colleagues [...]

Well-versed in global health, Obieze “Obi” Nwanna-Nzewunwa, MD, MS, brought unique experience and a desire to continue helping underserved communities to MMC when he arrived as a first-year general surgery resident in 2018. Obi is personally motivated to solve cervical cancer, which causes over 300,000 deaths annually. Ninety percent of cervical cancer deaths occur [...]

Deb Flint, RRT with an early design of her Oxygen Therapy Band innovation. Deb Flint, RRT, has been caring for patients for over 36 years, first as a paramedic and now as a respiratory therapist at Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, ME. Many of Deb’s patients require 24/7 oxygen support [...]

Imagine a busy hospital emergency department (ED) filled with patients, many of whom have or may have COVID-19. The need to contain the spread of germs is more important than ever. Early in the pandemic, Liz Hamilton, MD, and Katie Main, MD, Maine Medical Center (MMC) Emergency Department Chief Residents, addressed this growing challenge [...]

A sample quiz developed by Dr. Plourde Andy Patstone, President of Western Maine Health, leaned on Dr. Carolyn Plourde’s expertise as an experienced physician and educator to engage in critical COVID-19 vaccine myth busting among vaccine-hesitant healthcare workers concerned about pregnancy, fertility, and breastfeeding. Dr. Plourde, a Western Maine Health OBGYN employs [...]

“To be an innovator or entrepreneur was not exactly my intent,” says Rob Ecker, MD, MBA, Chief of Neuroscience at MaineHealth and Director of Endovascular Neurosurgery at Maine Medical Center. But that’s exactly what happened when Rob and his colleagues set out to develop a better way to clear blood clots from brains, better [...]

Dr. Jeff Halter, Pediatric Surgeon at Maine Medical Center, likes to see his patients go home happy and healthy after surgery. Unfortunately, for many of his patients who use a gastrostomy tube, or g-tube, a return trip to the operating room is inevitable. Gastrostomy tubes, or g-tubes, are feeding tubes placed through the abdomen [...]

Stephens Memorial Hospital of Western Maine Health located in Norway, ME. As a small rural hospital that runs a full service Emergency Department, Western Maine Health (WMH) based in Norway, ME, needs 24/7 general surgical call coverage. As the Norway community’s population decreased over the last several years, so has the demand [...]

Finding and retaining a trained workforce in rural hospitals is challenging. Like other New England and rural medical centers, Memorial Hospital in North Conway, NH, has had an increasing need for clinical practice team members, especially medical assistants (MA). Local programs were not producing enough graduates to meet their needs, so team members from [...]