Quality, coordinated health care for Maine

We are employees of Eastern Maine Medical Center and Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (EMHS) and we’ve endured the criticisms of our organization silently for far too long. Collectively we represent several hundred years of service to our communities, from a variety of specialty medical and service professions.

First, let us reassure the community that our first responsibility and commitment is to serve your health care needs. It is a responsibility we attend to with great pride, and one that is shared and reinforced by our leadership. We are guided by our charitable mission each day.

Quality health care in our state and nation is threatened by many things: declining reimbursement, malpractice costs, care for the under- or uninsured, rising costs of breakthrough medications and technology, workforce shortages … the list goes on. Our CEOs and governing boards are painfully and vigilantly aware of the threats faced by health care.

We have been concerned that some, in the recent discussions about the governance of EMHS, have suggested we need corporators/members to keep our leadership accountable to our community. This suggests we would otherwise not be accountable, when in fact nothing could be farther from the truth. We hold ourselves and each other accountable every day. We are eye to eye with our patients and their families every day, and they hold us accountable. We and our organization answer to the community on a daily basis.

EMHS is strong clinically and financially. Our system relationships enable us to bear the expense of serving all patients, bringing new technology and expertise to the region. During the past decade, through our health care system, our local communities and the region have gained access to such advances as a regional trauma program at EMMC, a statewide medical helicopter service, state-of-the-art imaging technologies such as multi-slice CT scanning, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning, second-generation digital mammography, three regional dialysis centers, and numerous other medical services. The emergency departments at EMMC and four other EMHS hospitals are often the gateway to these services, open around the clock, to anyone who needs care – no insurance card necessary.

Our organization’s leadership deserves credit for nurturing the controlled growth of this regional resource. Thanks to their vision, that organizational strength and quality care will be available for all, including those vocal critics when they need health care. And they will get excellent care. As employees, that is our promise and our responsibility.

This large regional health care system requires strong regional leadership in order to function. Would it serve our community to allow EMHS to dissolve, risking loss of our partners to another system far away from here? Do we really want to go back to the days when many more regional patients skipped over Bangor and sought care in Portland?

In an oped (BDN, Aug. 5), Dr. John McDevitt lamented that laws put in place to prevent new corporate misbehavior did not extend to health care. We think his conclusion is unfortunate and misguided, because it is our understanding that the course being set by the boards of EMHS is exactly the one he proposes. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, relating to conflict of interest in corporate governance and precipitated by the scandals in the business world, is the road map for the current restructuring of governance of EMHS.

This law requires fewer, smaller boards, governed by ethical standards that are beyond question. That means job descriptions, performance standards and evaluations for board members, selection criteria based upon the strategic needs of the organization, term limits, and a majority of independent board members – that is, people with no financial or personal stake in or connection to the organization.

We hope the angry, hurtful words of a few individuals in Bangor will not erode the trust our patients across the region place in us. As caregivers and professionals, we wish we could use our skills to heal the rift that those individuals may be creating with their unfortunate remarks. We are proud of our regional health care system and all the good services and jobs that EMHS supports. Together, we will ensure the continued availability of coordinated quality care for all residents of northern, eastern and central Maine.

Kathy Knight, RN, is director of emergency preparedness at EMHS. This commentary was also signed by 95 other members of EMHS.