Castine health clinic to remain open

BLUE HILL – Castine Community Health Services will remain open and will continue to operate under the umbrella of the Blue Hill Memorial Hospital following a vote by the hospital’s directors on Wednesday.

The unanimous board vote ends weeks of uncertainty about the future of the clinic and the availability of health services in and around Castine. The BHMH board remains committed to restoring the financial stability of the hospital health system while at the same time continuing the Castine clinic as an integral part of its primary care network, according to a press release issued Thursday.

“Castine and its surrounding communities are a part of our historic service area and part of our plan for the future,” BHMH President and CEO Tim Garrity said in a prepared statement. “Though our hospital faces enormous financial challenges, we think we can overcome those challenges with the help of the Castine community and the other communities we serve.”

The board decision approves the recommendations of a task force charged with gathering information about the Castine clinic, its patient volumes and financial viability. The task force had recommended that the clinic remain open.

“We’re certainly happy to have the support of the board and we’re grateful to our patients and community members who came out to the meeting to support us,” Dr. Marjorie Olivari, the physician at the Castine clinic, said Thursday.

Olivari said she hoped the board decision will result in a sense of stability for the clinic’s patients and staff.

“We hope we don’t have to go through this every year, with the staff not knowing if they’re going to have a job,” she said. “And patients want to have a stable medical home.”

The clinic has between 1,500 and 1,600 regular patients, which translate into about 5,100 patient contacts each year.

More than 200 people attended a meeting last month to hear details of the hospital plan to close the clinic and move the practice to Blue Hill. Local residents petitioned the hospital and many patients and community members wrote letters to hospital officials in support of keeping the clinic open.

The closure proposal was part of an 11-point hospital restructuring plan designed to eliminate an annual $1.2 million operating loss. The hospital board approved eight of those recommendations in September, but appointed two task forces to study the unresolved issues, which included the hospital’s obstetrics program and the Castine clinic.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the BHMH board also voted to continue the hospital’s obstetrics program and to recruit a new physician to replace Dr. Robert Walker, who is planning to retire, according to the press release.

The BHMH board based its decision on the recommendations of a task force through the hospital’s strategic planning committee, according to the board’s president, Dr. Stanley Bergen.

Although the clinic task force acknowledged the hospital’s financial difficulties, noting that small rural health care providers will continue to operate in an increasingly difficult financial environment, it suggested that the possibility exists “for a stronger collaboration between BHMH and Castine Community Hospital Corporation” that could help to preserve quality health care close to home for everyone in the clinic’s service area.

CCHC operated the clinic until 1995 and collaborated with the hospital to recruit a new physician for the practice. As the hospital and Primary Peninsula Care took over more of the administration of regional physician practices, including Castine’s, the CCHC board, which still owns the building that houses the clinic, became less involved in its operations.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Garrity said the hospital board already has taken steps to establish that closer working relationship. Bergen has been in touch with CCHC President Karen Siegel and a member of the Castine board, Alex Kuli, has been appointed to serve on the hospital’s strategic planning committee.

The board decision still leaves the hospital facing significant operating losses, and Garrity said funding improvements will be sought through increased appointments availability throughout the Peninsula Primary Care system. PPC oversees health clinics in Blue Hill, Bucksport, Castine and Stonington.

The BHMH board has appointed a task force that includes four physicians, four trustees and three administrators to find ways to improve the overall financial performance. Kuli from CCHC also will serve on that task force.

Bergen said the board will await the task force report on the PPC operations.

“We’ll see what that entails and how it mixes in with the need for the hospital to have a budget that is break even or a little on the plus side,” he said.

Whatever future decisions are made, it seems clear that the Castine clinic will remain a part of the PPC operation.

“The board is well aware of its responsibility to govern a health care system that is financially viable,” Garrity said. “It is important for the task force to be successful in closing the financial gap, but there was a clear sense on the board that whatever solutions we reach, Castine Community Health Services will be a part of the system of health care services.”