2013 Annual Report

In the first quarter of 2013 Mayo Regional Hospital was scored as one of the top 100 CAH (Critical Access Hospitals) in the nation in value, financial and quality measures by iVantage (a healthcare analytics company). In review, 2013 was a year of great progress and transitional changes. In August the HAD 4 Board of Directors named David McDermott, MD, MPH to serve as Interim CEO effective Aug. 31, after the departure of Ed Hannon. Dr. McDermott is a board-certified family physician who has been on staff at Mayo Regional Hospital serving the community since 1993. He is a Certified Physician Executive, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physician Executives. Dr. McDermott has provided organizational continuity and leadership consistent with his proven history of service to both Mayo and the surrounding communities.

Human Resources

Mayo Regional Hospital’s commitment to supporting employees during a military leave of absence was formalized by a new HR policy in 2013 that will continue a portion of their salary while they serve. The Office of the Secretary of Defense recognized Mayo Regional Hospital with a plaque designating Mayo as a Patriotic Employer for support of the Guard and Reserve. One of our Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants, Captain David Flaherty, was called to active duty with the US Army Reserves and spent most of 2013 in Southwest Asia in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Mayo achieved the second most favorable experience rating for Workers Compensation among the 15 hospitals participating in Synernet’s Workers Compensation Fund in 2013. This translates into lower premiums for 2014. Our focus on safe patient handling techniques and preventing slips, trips, and falls were key factors in our success.

New CEO

In November the Mayo Regional Hospital Board of Directors (HAD 4) announced the hiring of Marie Vienneau, RN, FACHE, as Chief Executive Officer of Mayo Regional Hospital. Vienneau will come on board in February 2014.

Vienneau is a Maine native who began her career in health care as an operating room RN at Brigham & Women’s hospital in Boston. Since then, she has served for 23 years in executive roles at Millinocket Regional Hospital, most recently as CEO and Chief Nursing Officer for the past eleven years. She earned her Bachelor of Science at the University of Maine in Orono, and is a Fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives.

“We are pleased to welcome Marie,” said George Barton, Board Chair of Mayo Regional Hospital (HAD 4). “She shares the board’s vision to ensure accessible, full service health care for every resident in our service area and is a seasoned healthcare executive. Having lived and worked in the area, she understands the health care needs in Piscataquis County and is personally committed to delivering quality, patient centered health care at Mayo.”

Marketing and Communications

Many radio and print ad campaigns continued throughout 2013 to highlight new physicians and Mayo service lines such as Cardiology, General Surgery, Urology, Orthopaedics, Women’s Health and Family Practice. Dr. Dave McDermott initiated a new branding campaign for Mayo Regional Hospital by contracting with Brenda Schultz, a talented local graphic and design artist who has many years of commercial ad and brochure experience working with the cosmetics industry out in Los Angeles. Brenda has been working closely with Brad Clark, the new Director of Marketing, Community and Physician Relations to formulate consistent branding and bring a fresh contemporary design to Mayo publications and marketing. Work began in the last quarter to redesign and build the Mayo Hospital website on a new platform that will both highlight Mayo Service Lines and provide patients with an easy to navigate site designed specifically to be informative and user friendly. The new site will be up and functioning during the first quarter of 2014.

Quality & Education

Bridges to Excellence certification was achieved for Diabetes Care at all Mayo primary care offices and was posted on the Get Better Maine website.

The “Laerdal Sim Man” is an adult life size wireless manikin that facilitates training of Basic and Advanced life support. The manikin can breathe, has a blood pressure and a pulse; all of these parameters can be adjusted via a computer to allow simulation of various disease processes. It allows the instructor to effectively assess the learner’s individual and team skills based on a realistic clinical situation. The simulation lab was set up in the summer and has been used during nursing orientation, Advanced Cardiac Life Support classes and for training EMS crews. The Sim Man was used during a 4H class this last summer to stimulate local student interest in the health care field. It will used to train RNs, CNAs, MAs and EMS and is programmable to present both simple and complex health issues.

We completed an annual “Culture of Safety” survey in conjunction with most other hospitals in Maine. This survey assesses staff awareness of and engagement with best practices to prevent injury and errors and to improve the experiences of our patients. Our scores were above state averages; the survey gave us good information on where we can continue to improve our work on patient safety. We have undertaken a triennial survey of staff satisfaction in December. The results will be shared with the hospital’s leadership in February of 2014.

Community Support

Throughout 2013 Mayo Education has been involved in community health improvement efforts including community presentations, blood drives, social services resource information, diabetes education, breast cancer counseling, senior activities, volunteer services and vaccine storage for area schools. Mayo EMS was present for standby at area sporting events, public safety for community events and assistance for Life Flight transport.

Mayo Practice Associates

In April, Dr. Elizabeth Dennis accepted the position of Outpatient Medical Director and began focusing half of her time on administrative functions and half on her clinical role. Lori Morrison, the new Vice President of Mayo Practice Associates, also joined Mayo Regional Hospital and its senior team in April. Lori’s expertise in running medical practices & Dr. Dennis’s clinical oversight and leadership were both instrumental in the following key projects at Mayo Practice Associates: Mayo Practice Associates (MPA) efforts were centered on strengthening the operational infrastructure and reorganizing staff and departments in an effort to support the federally mandated Electronic Health Records environment. We have successfully implemented centralized departments for scanning, scheduling and referrals. MPA hired its first Outpatient Nurse Manager in July bringing leadership, training and direction for all Medical Assistants and nursing staff within each of the Mayo outpatient offices. In the fourth quarter, we have experienced efficiencies with provider scheduling.

MPA’s Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Committee has received PCMH level 1 corporate recognition from the National Committee of Quality Assurance (NCQA). We continue to work on site applications for Milo and Dover-Foxcroft Family Medicine and will submit those applications in early 2014. Procedures have been approved by the Policy Committee to support the implementation of PCMH systems in our offices. MPA has implemented processes that have or will have an emphasis on patient access, coordinated care and evaluating both provider performance and patient experience. As part of MPA’s participation in the State of Maine’s Health Homes initiative, we have collaborated with Penobscot Community Health Center (PCHC) to provide Community Care Team (CCT) Services for patients. Collaboration with the CCT will provide additional patients and providers with support and care management including in-home interventions. We continue to experience demonstrated improvements in care management through our work in developing a Patient Centered Medical Home model of care. We have hired 3 Nurse Navigators (1 for DFFM, 1 shared position for Milo and Corinth and 1 shared position for Guilford and Dexter Internal Medicine) who are being trained by the Nurse Manager to assume the work needed for care management and clinical planning that is instrumental to support our providers and to increase patient satisfaction and outcomes. Providers are reporting that they find the role of the Nurse Navigators to be very helpful.

We have successfully completed the transition of Occupational Health Services (WorkWISE) from DFFM to Mayo Orthopaedics. Dr. MacDonald and Nicole Kane, FNP have conducted site visits with local employers and are reporting that the businesses are pleased with the transition. Nicole Kane is devoting 40% of her time to Occupational Health Services and her schedule has been full.

The Patient Portal has been rolled out to patients of MPA. Patients are able to review lab results, request appointments and ask questions within the secure portal. Additional services will be offered within the portal as we develop processes for releasing information for our patient population.

Noteworthy

Dr. Skip MacDonald led a group of hospital professionals and staff from Foxcroft Academy to fully develop a program to recognize and treat concussion injuries. The program is based upon the current program at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center (UPMC). UPMC is recognized as a leader in concussion evaluation and treatment in the country. Mayo Regional Hospital and Foxcroft Academy have taken a proactive role in this region of Maine developing an educational program and policies that are required to be in all schools by 2014. Dr. MacDonald and Fran Moore, RPT, have offered to provide this education and policy template to any school system within the region. We believe that the current program at Mayo surpasses the programs available in most every other community in Maine.

Kathleen Harper, DO, a non-invasive cardiologist, accepted an offer of employment and relocated to Dover-Foxcroft in August. Her role oversees the care of patients in an outpatient setting, performance and interpretation of diagnostic testing that includes EKGs, echocardiograms, stress testing, as well as clear medicine studies. She also oversees the cardiac rehab program, consults with the hospitalists, anesthesia, and emergency department providers. She has expanded the scope of testing available locally and has helped many patients get advanced care closer to home. Dr. Harper is very community minded and brings needed skills and services to our patient population.

Mayo Regional Hospital was chosen by the Wellness council of America to receive the Well Workplace Designation. Mayo is one of 700 employers nationwide to receive this designation and is a tremendous accomplishment.

Dr. Robert Maxson joined Mayo Regional Hospital as a Hospitalist. (Hospitalists are physicians whose primary professional focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Hospitalists typically spend most or all of their work day in the hospital, and thus can be more readily available to a patient than a doctor who spends much the day outside the hospital in an office or clinic setting.) Dr. Maxson received his Doctorate of Medicine from Eastern Virginia Medical School and completed both his Internship & Residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. He is excited to be here and has been well received by the staff in the hospital. He is looking forward to enjoying the myriad of recreational opportunities in our area with his new wife.

During the last quarter, Dr. Sohaib Siddiqui (Family Medicine/Hospitalist), accepted an offer of employment for January of 2014. Dr. Siddiqui has been working at Mayo over the last year as a locum hospitalist and was well received by both staff and patients. Dr. Siddiqui will work as a hospitalist covering inpatient medicine and also split his time working at Guilford Medical Associates as a family practice physician. Dr. Siddiqui was impressed by the family-like feel of the Mayo community and Mayo’s attention to quality.

General Surgeon Dr. Gerald Godfrey joined Mayo Surgical Associates in November. Dr. Godfrey received his Doctorate of Medicine from Brown University, interned at both Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Rhode Island Hospital and completed his Residency at Berkshire Medical Center. Dr. Godfrey will offer a full spectrum general surgery practice. His excellent interpersonal skills and enthusiasm for outdoor recreation make him an exceptional fit to our region and patient population.

Dr. Ahmad Abed Elnoor joined Mayo Practice Associates in June and is performing surgical cases at the hospital for both adult and pediatric patients. Dr. Elnoor completed his fellowship in pediatric urology and went on to practice male health (andrology) at Detroit Medical Center. Mayo now offers state-of-the art medical and surgical treatment in all aspects of adult and pediatric Urology, including cancer, voiding dysfunction and incontinence, infections, stones, congenital anomalies, upper tract obstruction and urinary tract reconstruction. Dr. Elnoor uses endoscopic and minimally invasive approaches to these conditions. Having these advanced skill sets available for our patients allows for quality care with local convenience.

Community Outreach

We have met with many of our fellow local large employers (Hardwood Products, JSI Store Fixtures, and Pleasant River Lumber among them) to hear their concerns about access to occupational health services. These meetings were instrumental to our work to revitalize WorkWISE. We are also working with local employers to find innovative ways to improve the access of their employees to local care resources.

We continue to offer operational support to assist in the work of Pine Tree Hospice, Piscataquis County’s only volunteer hospice provider. We have worked through the year in partnership with The Piscataquis Public Health Council as they chart their course to help us and others improve public health in the Maine Highlands with a particular focus on obesity prevention and management, nutritional education and support, tobacco cessation and avoidance, and substance use/abuse prevention (particularly for our youth).

We have helped to support educational and cultural programming at the Center Theatre through the year. Many of our departments adopted families at the holiday season for giving through the work of the Kiwanis Club of Dover-Foxcroft. We work in partnership with Foxcroft Academy to provide student health services to them; these are particularly important in light of the growth in their International Boarding Student Program.

New Physician and Non-Physician Providers

  • Annette Poulin, PA-C Corinth 3/11

  • Gordon Murphy, PA-C, ED 3/12

  • Ahmad Abed Elnoor, MD, Urologist 5/28

  • Kathleen Harper, DO, Cardiologist 8/5

  • John Bastin, PA-C, ED 8/16

  • Robert Maxson, MD, Hospitalist 8/12

  • Paul Spencer, PA-C, ED 9/1

  • Tenielle Holste, PA-C, MFP 10/21

  • Loretta Daniels, PA-C, ED 10/8

  • Gerald Godfrey, MD, Surgeon 11/18

Key Statistics for 2013

  • Acute admissions – 1120 – includes ICU admissions

  • Average census – 13.1

  • Births – 110

  • Surgical procedures – 1641

  • Radiology exams – 22,548

  • Lab tests – 137,504

  • Emergency Department visits – 12,086

  • Physician Office visits – 44,149 (includes both RHC & Non-RHC)

  • Ambulance Runs – 3808