Moving beyond EMMC, EMH boards’ status quo

As a resident of Bangor, I find Eastern Maine Medical Center’s recent refusal to make public the names of its incorporators disturbing and applaud the Bangor Daily News’ decision to publish the list. After all, EMMC is a nonprofit corporation with the mission to serve our community and enjoys a significant tax benefit because of this status.

Most incorporators are elected representatives from our community who, in turn, have the critical task of electing the members of the board of trustees. This serves to keep the hospital focused on its mission. For-profit corporations typically publish their list of trustees and incorporators, usually in their annual report. EMMC does not and would not even release the names when requested. Finally, and only under duress, the list was released to a very restricted number of people with the stipulation in writing that no one else could see it. As a non-profit corporation, one would expect more, not less, openness. Why all the secrecy?

The routine followed at Eastern Maine Healthcare annual meetings entails the essentially automatic election of a slate of candidates chosen by a board-appointed nominating committee. The large majority of incorporators have not attended past meetings. Why should they, since there was no choice to make between candidates and the outcome was a foregone conclusion?

However, EMH has a provision in its bylaws that allows incorporators to make board nominations. The intent is to maintain a democratic process in selecting the board. Through this alternative method of nomination, for the first time in recent memory a true election of board members, where incorporators actually have a choice, should occur.

Withholding the names of the incorporators prevents the very people who elect the board from getting information that would help them make an informed decision. By suppressing the incorporators list EMH sends one of two messages. Either they feel that their incorporators cannot make an intelligent choice when presented with both sides of an issue, or they are afraid that they will choose the alternative candidates and the EMH slate will lose. The former seems unlikely, as the incorporators are generally community leaders fully capable of comprehending different points of view. If the latter is true, then EMH is attempting to pervert what should be a democratic process.

Although not allowing others access to the list and thereby impeding a reasonable chance to get information to the incorporators, EMH included a dozen additional pages supporting their own position (presumably at hospital expense) in the recent announcement of the annual meeting. The cover letter to this mailing warned, “A group of individuals are opposed to the mission of EMH and EMMC.” This statement is blatantly untrue. The group being referred to is committed to providing the best possible health care to our region. Does this oppose the present board’s mission?

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The current hospital leadership has presided over an environment of hostility with the medical staff, the crises in trauma and anesthesia services, frustration among the nurses, a lawsuit with Community Health and Counseling, cutbacks in previously available services while simultaneously investing in building ventures, huge deficits incurred through enterprises such as Norumbega Medical and the ejection of a respected member of the medical community from its board. The EMMC and EMH boards are also rife with interlocking relationships between the companies of board members, as detailed by Sidney Block’s BDN November op-ed article. Board membership typically is self-perpetuating with an extremely low turnover rate (not including Ted Silver’s recent expulsion and those who resigned in protest). Is this a status quo our community wants to keep?

Election of a few new individuals to the EMH and EMMC boards will not change things over night, but it’s a start. Concerned citizens, of whom I am proud to be a member, have nominated the following individuals for the EMMC and EMH boards. They are highly qualified, prominent members of our community who can bring a much needed breath of fresh air to the board rooms. They are:

. Elizabeth Carter Warren, current board member of Bangor Theological Seminary, past board member of Acadia Hospital, Bangor Children’s Home, Maine Board of Bar Examiners, Maine Center for the Arts, Westbrook College, spokesperson for Buddy to Buddy Network for Women with Breast Cancer co-sponsored by WABI and the EMMC Breast and Osteoporosis Center;

. Mary Cathcart, four-term state senator representing Penobscot County, current chair of Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, 1988-1994 member of the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services;

. Raymond Bradford Jr., J.D., Bangor attorney since 1971, former trustee, Phillips-Strickland House, All Souls Church, Universalist Church and Mount Hope Cemetery Corp.;

. Dennis Shubert, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, retired neurosurgeon, 21 years of private practice in Bangor, chief of surgery at EMMC for 12 years, masters degree in Public Health Management.

I would not expect anyone to vote based just on my opinion. If you are an EMH incorporator, please re-read the BDN articles concerning EMH and EMMC from the last few months and from the fall of 2001. Look at the qualifications of all the board candidates. Ask a nurse, a surgeon, an anesthesiologist, a primary care physician. Ask a patient. Ask someone on the front lines of health care, not in a board room or office, how things are going at EMMC. Then go to Wednesday’s annual meeting and vote your conscience.

If you are not an incorporator but know one, please urge them to do this.

F.W. Heineman, M.D. is an internist in Bangor.