BRUNSWICK

Local health care CEOs outlined their vision for joining forces to the Brunswick Town Council on Monday with a mission to improve health in the Mid-coast region while providing more preventative care to adults and children.

Lois Skillings of Mid Coast Hospital and Randee Reynolds of Parkview Adventist Medical Center gave a presentation titled “Stronger Together.”

“Parkview Adventist Hospital and Mid Coast Hospital have a unified vision to achieve a sustainable health care system for the community. This proposed approach will preserve the mission of two beloved organizations, as well as valuable jobs in the Bath, Brunswick and Topsham area,” Reynolds said.

In outlining the master plan for the future of Parkview, Reynolds showed a pared-down menu of services at the hospital. Physician practices, walk in and urgent care, radiology, laboratory services, physical therapy, ambulatory surgery, oncology and community health will remain at the hospital. Emergency and inpatient services will be moved to the Cook’s Corner Campus.

In response to the presentation, Councilor Kathy Wilson said, “Having lived here forever and having sort of viewed (Parkview and Mid Coast) as a couple of children fighting, and I cannot tell you how excited I was when I picked up the paper and saw that y’all are getting together and I compliment you on that.”

When asked by Councilor Jane Millett what hurdles the merger faced, Reynolds said that aside from the courts not approving the merger, he has seen nothing but an outpouring of support for the plan.

Reynolds said many jobs have migrated to Mid Coast, and that to date there have been no layoffs.

Skillings added that there would be no layoffs and that all Parkview full- and part-time staff have been offered positions at Mid Coast.

Reynolds said he doesn’t see another peri- od of growth occurring at Parkview in the near future.

“I think what we’re seeing is a retraction of staff across the nation when it comes to health care,” he said.

He said that the movement of nurses to Mid Coast has the added benefit of patients now seeing a familiar face when they go to a different hospital for treatment.

Skillings added that with normal attrition and retirements, the two organizations should be able to handle the merger without layoffs, “When you think about where health care is going, we can’t fix it and keep it the same, we can’t have the status quo and transform.”

Skillings said the nation has reached a point in our health care where the cost is too high, our health is not good enough and it is not a sustainable model, causing “a crisis point.” She said health care professionals across the country are currently engaged in attempting to improve health and reign in costs.

The current model, Skillings said, is based upon sickness and treatment, causing patients to have to access the most expensive parts of our health care system to get better such as cancer treatments.

“The United States probably has the best sick care in the world,” Skillings said, however, overall ranking in wellness finds the U.S. down the list at 38.

Skillings said that in Maine our health care costs are 22 percent above the nation’s average and the national average is twice per capita of other industrialized nations.

“Luckily, in the Mid-coast region, our health costs are 35 percent below the statewide average,” Skillings said.

Skillings outlined a “triple aim to improve health care.” The first goal is having people get and stay healthier by using preventative care. The second is improving health and health care. Third is eliminating waste and driving down cost.

Highlighting access to primary care physicians is “where the health care happens,” Skillings said, and work needs to be done in workplace wellness and preventative care for children and infants. She also advocated outreach for children in the 5,2,1,0 program consisting of five fruits or vegetables a day, less than two hours of screen time, one hour of activity and zero sugary beverages.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com

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