Ledwin to retire as high-profile EMHS leader

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BREWER – Twelve years after taking the administrative helm at Eastern Maine Medical Center, Norm Ledwin has announced he will retire at the end of September. Ledwin’s departure from his current position as president and CEO of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, the far-reaching corporate organization he helped build, marks the achievement of a number of ambitious but controversial initiatives that have shaped the health care system throughout northern Maine.

When he accepted the position in 1993, Ledwin took over the management of a Bangor-based hospital system with just two facilities, EMMC and Acadia Hospital.

He leaves the corporation with six member hospitals and two affiliated hospitals in northern Maine, along with a complex organizational chart that includes a nine-county spread of nursing homes, physician practices, ambulance services, home care offices, an emergency helicopter transport service, a number of health care support businesses, a real estate office and a hotel.

Along the way Ledwin overhauled the corporate governance system, eliminating a mid-level board and replacing the traditional system of independent community corporators with a board-selected group of individuals with a more active role but less autonomy.

He’s added several office buildings to the main hospital campus in Bangor as well as moving the corporate staff into a tony new structure at Whiting Hill, the EMHS-owned office park in Brewer that is the anticipated site of four such buildings.

Ledwin’s most recent coup is his collaboration with the University of Maine and The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor to establish a human genetics research facility in Brewer, expected to break ground in the near future. The project is a key element in a proposed biomedical research triangle being promoted by the state as a promising regional economic development strategy.

Still pending approval is a plan to build a private electrical generating plant on the riverside Bangor campus.

Ledwin, now 64, said Wednesday that with certain corporate benchmarks reached, it’s time to let someone else move into his top-floor office in the new Cianchette Building at Whiting Hill.

Ledwin said he is proud to have met long-term strategic goals set by the EMHS board of trustees in four areas: clinical care, regionalization of services, financial stability and organizational structure.

Ledwin pointed with pride to major improvements in the facilities for treating trauma, neonatal conditions, cardiac disease and cancer.

The development of the Eastern Maine Healthcare Mall on Union Street in Bangor and the expansion of the Family Practice Center in the mall, along with the aggressive recruitment of clinicians, have allowed more patients to receive high quality care in the Bangor area, he said, while corporate support has enabled small hospitals and health centers in rural areas to keep their doors open.

For example, the tiny C.A. Dean Memorial Hospital in Greenville “probably wouldn’t even be there now if we hadn’t stepped in,” he said.

Financially, Ledwin said the nonprofit EMHS has made key improvements while staying under budget, paying cash for many projects and maintaining an A-plus rating on Wall Street.

And the contentious organizational restructuring that upset some doctors and others in the community has resulted in the organization being recognized nationally as a leader in hospital governance, he said.

Overall, “we are in excellent shape,” Ledwin said. “We are as strong as any institution in Maine and as strong as many across the country.”

But Ledwin’s ambitious leadership style has not always been met with approval in the Bangor community.

Some groups have protested the corporation’s practice of recruiting medical specialists to work at the hospital, sweetening the deal with six-figure salaries and other incentives that undermine private practices in the area.

Some have decried the investment in administrative space for executives and corporate staffers, and in clinical condominium space built on speculation for physician practices that have been slow to materialize – especially when direct patient care space is in short supply at EMMC.

Overarching these concerns has been mistrust of the new governance structure that, for some, signals the end of accountability to the community and vests unprecedented control in a self-selected board of trustees.

Despite such concerns, there was no shortage of people Wednesday willing to comment favorably on Ledwin’s contributions.

Deborah Carey Johnson, who took over as CEO of the medical center in 2004 after Ledwin decided to dedicate his energy to the parent corporation, said he’s been “an exciting, high-energy, forward-thinking person to work for.”

“He is absolutely committed to doing the right thing for health care in the region,” she said, adding she’s always found him to be a responsive listener and a collaborative planner.

Steve Michaud, executive director of the Maine Hospital Association, called Ledwin “visionary.”

“Any leader of any consequence is going to be divisive in some way,” he said. “I don’t believe anyone in the health care arena can be effective without causing controversy.”

Gov. John Baldacci said Ledwin’s energy, enthusiasm and dedication to meeting the health care needs of rural Mainers have been valued in Augusta as his administration designs a statewide health plan.

He praised Ledwin’s responsiveness and innovation in working with state officials in 2003 to ensure laid-off workers from Great Northern Paper in Millinocket retained access to health care.

Sister Mary Norberta, president of Saint Joseph Healthcare in Bangor, said that despite occasional disagreements, relationships between the two hospitals are more collaborative than competitive.

Ledwin is a good businessman and well-respected in the community, she said. “I wish him God’s blessing and Godspeed,” she said. “I’m a little envious of his retirement.”

Ledwin said he’s not one to spend his days playing golf or rocking on the porch. His plans include taking an emergency medical technician course so he can do ambulance work in Hancock County and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity or other hands-on charities.

At the request of the EMHS board, he said, he’ll be available “in an advisory capacity” until his replacement can be named and brought up to speed.

Ledwin said he and his wife, Mary Ellen, will settle in Castine, also spending time at their other home on Amelia Island in Florida.

EMHS board chair Jack Palmer said a national search is already under way for Norm Ledwin’s replacement.