Waldo County Healthcare and Pen Bay Healthcare have formed a Collaboration Committee to expand the opportunities for collaborative services between the two organizations. The goal is to work together on services that have the ability to ensure long-term, affordable, accessible and high value healthcare to residents of both Waldo and Knox counties.
The 18-member committee is made up of seven members from the Waldo County Healthcare’s executive committee and seven from Pen Bay Healthcare’s executive commit-tee, along with the Chief Medical Officers and the medical staff presidents from both facilities.
CEO Mark Biscone talks with employees about the creation of the Collaboration Committee.
That committee has been charged with returning to their respective boards of directors in about six months with recommendations for further collaboration.The guiding principles for the committee are:
• High value healthcare: provide the residents of Waldo and Knox counties with the broadest-possible access to high quality, high value healthcare
• Care close to home: deliver care as close to home for patients as is safe, clinically effective, and cost effective
• Cost efficiency: ensure our clinical, facility and administrative resources are as efficient and streamlined as possible
• Engagement with community and internal stakeholders: engage in active dialogue with healthcare leaders, community residents and Waldo and Pen Bay internal stakeholders to gather input and ideas
• Local stewardship: respect the wishes of donors, maintaining oversight for charitable assets at a local level
The Collaboration Committee has also been asked to be “committed to providing high-value healthcare close to home” by being creative and innovative in its solutions; working with the local communities; thinking compassionately; being cost-effective in care delivery and communicating and being open with its recommendations.
Currently there are 18 areas where Waldo County Healthcare and Pen Bay Healthcare are already sharing services or are in the process of setting up partnerships. These include:
1. Laundry services
2. Marketing/communication services
3. Nephrology services
4. Home Health & Hospice
5. Urology services
6. Vascular surgery services
7. Infectious disease physician services
8. A Chief Medical Information Officer
9. Epic go-live staff support sharing
10. Cardiopulmonary department manager
11. Coverage for department manager’s medical leave
12. A dentist
13. Grant writing services
14. Speech therapy services
15. Telepsychiatry services
16. Oncology services
17. Echo sonographer
18. Telestroke services
At a community meeting about the Collaboration Committee, Biscone said he would like to at least double the list of services being shared.
He said the scale of population needed to recruit and retain specialists is met by combining the populations of Waldo and Knox counties.
Biscone added that by January, behavioral health services will be shared among Waldo, Knox and Lincoln counties. The administration of home health services in the three counties will also be combined.