Local health center names room for Sister Norberta

BANGOR – The Penobscot Community Health Center in Bangor dedicated its waiting room in honor of Sister Mary Norberta, president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph Healthcare, on April 22.

“Through the generosity of St. Joseph Healthcare, with Sister Norberta’s support, we have been able to establish ourselves as a viable, Federally Qualified Health Center without the need for federal funding,” noted the Rev. Robert Carlson, the center’s president and board chairman.

On behalf of those involved with the center, Carlson thanked St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation for financial gifts in support of the center, both in grants and loans forgiven.

St. Joseph Healthcare, he noted, has a long history of initiating and supporting collaborative programs “to make sure the people of our community receive quality health care. They do this, not because they have to, but because it is the right thing to do.”

Sister Norberta noted that support of community health programs has always been an integral part of the mission of St. Joseph Healthcare.

“If we forsake our idea of mission and do not support this center and help it to grow and expand,” she said, “who will step up to the plate?”

Also participating were Dr. Barbara Vereault, PCHC medical director, and Kenneth Schmidt, chief executive officer of the center.

PCHC is a nonprofit organization that provides access to comprehensive outpatient health care, mental health, social and prevention services, without regard to ability to pay. Located on Union Street, it is the only Federally Qualified Health Center serving the approximately 115,000 people living in more than 38 cities and towns in the Bangor region. More than 70 percent of its patients are low-income, have no health insurance, or are Medicaid or Medicare recipients.