I was born and raised in Bangor and I have been a practicing physician for 32 years. This community is my home, its citizens are my patients, and Eastern Maine Medical Center is the hospital where I choose to do my work. In my earlier years, I served EMMC on their board of trustees.

As I have aged, so have my patients, and we all share a desire that EMMC maintain its strength so that it will be there whenever we need it. Consequently, I have followed the debate about its governance modernization efforts with an interest that, whatever happens, the hospital stay strong in the face of the numerous challenges it faces.

On one end of the debate are a group of Bangor-area “corporators” (people who traditionally have held some power over selecting the EMMC board) under the name of “Good Governance.” They have urged that community oversight of large nonprofit organizations must be preserved through the corporator model. They have also argued for physician representation on the board, term limits and the establishment of sound governance practices so that our hospital does not face the same controversies that have hit other health systems and for-profit companies across the nation. Some have suggested that EMMC adopt a governance structure like that of Maine Medical Center in Portland.

On the other end of the debate is the Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (EMHS) board, which is the parent company of EMMC, Acadia and a number of other hospitals in the region. They have worked for more than three years to develop a proposed reorganization plan that will simplify the corporate bureaucracy and enable EMMC and other hospitals to be more nimble and effective in dynamic times.

Recently, I received an outline of the governance structures being used by Maine Medical Center, and its parent company, Maine Health. At Maine Health, corporators preside over the parent company, and these individuals come from all over Maine, not just Portland. Interestingly, in the Maine Health model, no physicians are guaranteed a seat on any of the boards, except one at Maine Medical Center.

Not only does the EMHS plan guarantee physician seats on the parent board, it also guarantees five seats on the EMMC board. As a physician, I believe the EMHS plan is a better model than that of Maine Health.

I’ll admit that if I were the author, with final authority over the plan, there would be a few items I would change based on my own personal views. I realize, however, that many people put in several years of good faith effort to make a plan that achieves multiple compromises and greater efficiency while preserving community accountability. It is time for us to embrace the plan as the best of many options.

I intend to vote for the reorganization plan. An affirmative vote from all the corporators means a strengthening of EMMC and its regional relationships. A negative vote may retain some power for a group of people in Bangor, but it risks the future stability of EMMC, which will affect everyone in Bangor.

Franklin E. Bragg, M.D., practices internal medicine with Norumbega Medical in Bangor.