BLUE HILL – Officials from Blue Hill Memorial Hospital and Eastern Maine Healthcare System on Thursday formally announced that they will move ahead with plans to make the Blue Hill hospital a full member of the Bangor-based health care system.

The boards of both institutions on Wednesday voted unanimously to proceed with the affiliation. BHMH has been a strategic affiliate of EMHS since 1997.

The affiliation will help to preserve the local hospital and the health care system it supports, BHMH chief executive officer Timothy Garrity said.

“We believe our affiliation with Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems will help us fulfill our mission of providing health care of outstanding quality with personal attention close to home,” Garrity said.

In order to survive in the future, the hospital will need clinical, political, technological and human resources, he said.

“The economics of health care will become more challenging with time, forcing efficiencies that can only be obtained by significant sharing of costs and services with other hospitals,” Garrity said. “Increasing expectations of clinical quality, continuity of care and the need for shared information systems will require small hospitals to obtain significant resources from some larger entity.”

The best path for Blue Hill, he said, is through a closer affiliation with EMHS.

The two institutions have developed a close working relationship over the past decade or so, according to EMHS CEO Norm Ledwin, who said he was pleased that Blue Hill will be joining the EMHS family. The affiliation, Ledwin said, will allow the two institutions to become fully integrated and to do things that they have not legally been able to do in the past.

The affiliation agreement still faces approval from several state and federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service. Although many of those agencies already assumed a closer relationship between the two institutions, Ledwin said they will have to pass antitrust reviews on both the state and federal levels.

“We will need to make sure that we clearly demonstrate that there are risks as well as benefits to both parties in this system,” he said.

The affiliation is a key element in the BHMH strategic plan adopted in March of this year, according to the board chairman, Dr. Stan Bergen. Bergen said the affiliation will help the hospital and EMHS to meet the challenges of the future together, noting that their missions, strengths and resources are complimentary.

“The Blue Hill Memorial Hospital mission is focused on caring for the communities we serve; the Eastern Maine Healthcare mission is to provide a network of local health care providers who offer high quality, cost-effective services to their communities.”

The agreement allows the Blue Hill hospital to keep local control of its facilities, assets and its $13 million-plus endowment. Although the BHMH Foundation voted to relinquish its role as the hospital’s parent organization, it will continue to oversee the endowment and investments as well as to serve as the parent company of Coast Holding Inc., which manages the Parker Ridge Retirement Community.

“Our endowment has grown due to the generosity of many contributors and we will always honor their commitment and legacy to this hospital,” Judith Thomas, foundation board chairwoman, said. “We look forward with enthusiasm to working with Blue Hill Memorial Hospital in a different but yet important role as they develop their new relationship with Eastern Maine Healthcare System.”

Patients at the Blue Hill hospital will notice few changes in the near future, Garrity said.

In the long term, as the institutions integrate information systems, patients will likely see less paperwork as they use different services in Blue Hill, its primary care clinics in Hancock County and at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

“Ultimately, that should provide a seamless translation of information … that will enhance the continuity of care and safety,” he said.

The affiliation also will allow the local hospital to offer more specialty services to patients in its service area, at the hospital and at primary care clinics.

Officials from the two institutions will continue to work on the details of the affiliation, which could take as little as 30 days or as long as six months, before the agreement becomes final.