Off the charts Dover-Foxcroft PA named Maine’s best second time around

Physician assistant Bill Bisbee gently unwound a cloth covering one of Jordan Johnston’s hands and leaned toward the young man as he inquired about the injury. Johnston, 18, of Dover-Foxcroft, told Bisbee he hurt his hand while processing a board at a local sawmill. After listening to a recap of the accident and Johnston’s complaints, Bisbee examined the hand and X-rays that had been taken earlier.

Using the X-rays, Bisbee explained what had happened to the hand and declared there were no broken bones. Ice the hand, he told Johnston, and avoid heavy lifting until the injury heals.

“Thanks so much,” Johnston said, grateful for Bisbee’s attention.

Easing the pain of patients such as Johnston, and calming preoperative jitters are all in a day’s work for Bisbee, who works as a physician’s assistant at WorkWISE, an occupational health program offered at Mayo Regional Hospital and at Mayo Orthopedics.Bisbee’s patients and co-workers consider him a friend, a healer and a two-timer – at winning, that is.

For the second time in 11 years, Bisbee’s peers recognized him as Maine’s Rural Physician Assistant of the Year. Bisbee, who has been a PA in Dover-Foxcroft for 28 years, is the only PA to have been recognized twice by the Down East Association of Physician Assistants, according to Administrator Linda Roberts.

The award is presented each year to one of Maine’s approximately 540 PAs in recognition of dedicated service to a rural community, as a health care provider and as a citizen, she said recently.

“He works so hard, if you talk to anybody in town and say his name, everybody knows him and everybody says ‘Oh, what a nice man, he does so much,'” Roberts said.

Bisbee is the driving factor in the association’s move in the near future to Dover-Foxcroft, she said.

In Maine, PAs must work under the supervision of doctors of medicine or osteopathic medicine and are licensed by the Board of Licensure in Medicine, according to Roberts. Just as medical doctors specialize, so do physician assistants, and most are employed in family practice, she said. By virtue of their training, they can do anything their supervising doctor does, Roberts said.

Becoming a physician assistant wasn’t his first calling, according to Bisbee. He started out as a research technician in cancer research but found he wanted to contribute more to his profession than the daily dissection of rats.

Bisbee wanted a career that was more connected to people and found the role of a physician assistant appealing, he said.

After graduating from the Yale University Physician Assistant program, the Belfast native moved to Dover-Foxcroft, where he became Piscataquis County’s first PA.

He and his wife, Elaine, live in Dover-Foxcroft, where they have raised three daughters.

“It’s the personal touch I really enjoy,” Bisbee said. “When I decided to enter this profession 28 years ago, it was with the idea of helping people.

“Since I’ve been in Dover-Foxcroft, that philosophy has gone beyond the practice of medicine,” he said. “It is one of the reasons I get involved in community organizations.”

Honored to be recognized again with the state award, Bisbee said, “I thought it was supposed to be a one-time award.”

If his patients were the deciding factor, Bisbee would carry away the honor each year.

“He’s the best,” Jen Fairbrother, 33, of Dover-Foxcroft said recently. Fairbrother, who is employed at the hospital, sees Bisbee for tendinitis, a problem exacerbated by computer use.

“He’s really nice, he’s always in a good mood, and when you leave him you feel you’re informed about your injury,” Fairbrother said. “He’s also very involved in the community as well,” she said.

Bisbee serves many roles at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church and is active in on the Foxcroft Academy board of trustees.

“Bill has served as a trustee of Foxcroft Academy since 1999, but his service to the academy goes far beyond his role as trustee,” Jay Brennan, associate headmaster for institutional advancement, said recently. “In the very early days of the academy’s Health Center, Bill would regularly volunteer his time seeing students and staff.

“I can’t even begin to tabulate the hours of volunteer work he has done with our sports teams. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this honor,” Brennan said.

Roberts agreed. “He is just one of those real people,” she said of Bisbee. “You can trust anything he says. I would trust my life with that man.

“You never think twice, if he says something you don’t ever question it because he talks from his heart.”