Biscone receives his award from Dorothy Havey, Executive Director of the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce.
Mark Biscone, President & Chief Executive Officer of Waldo County Healthcare and Pen Bay Healthcare, was honored recently by the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce as the 2014 Citizen of the Year. The award is voted on by the community.
Biscone has been with Waldo County Healthcare for more than 35 years. He was named the Executive Director of Waldo County General Hospital in March 1983, after working for nearly five years as the controller. Prior to that, he had worked at a hospital in Schenectady, NY.
Biscone oversaw a major expansion of services and specialty practices, from a renal dialysis unit to an in-hospital Hospice wing along with five rural health centers; building Penobscot Shores; and taking over the Belfast Public Health Nursing Association. More recently he completed a new operating suite; a sleep lab; a helicopter landing pad and an anticoagulation clinic.
All of this was accomplished at a time when federal regulations were leading to increased consolidation in the healthcare field and the closure of many small hospitals across the country. Waldo County was one of only a few Maine hospitals to consistently maintain a black bottom line.
Biscone with his wife Barb, oldest and youngest daughters, Kerensa, far right, and her husband Don and Erica, who were present to see Mark receive the award.
But being in the black didn’t come from cutting the quality of patient care. Waldo County was awarded the prestigious Leapfrog Award in 2009 and in this year alone was named to iVantage’s 2014 “Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals” in the United States and also as one of Becker’s Hospital Review’s 2014 “100 Great Community Hospitals” nationally.
When asked earlier this year to add to his duties at Waldo County by becoming the interim Chief Executive Officer of Pen Bay Healthcare, he didn’t hesitate. More work, certainly, but also a challenge and an opportunity to collaborate to provide the highest quality care in the region.
Biscone isn’t all work and no play. He enjoys working on the farm that he and wife Barb are creating. He is also actively involved with Rotary, especially with the 100 Fund Project, which provides clothing and toys to the 100 neediest children in the area each Christmas.