Inpatient care award

BANGOR – St. Joseph Healthcare has been selected to receive a national award, Best Performer in Inpatient Care given by Avatar International Inc. The award is based on results of the hospital’s 2005 inpatient care patient surveys, which showed that St. Joseph Healthcare had the highest overall patient satisfaction score for comparable hospitals of 101-200 beds in Avatar’s database, and also in the next highest size category as well.

Avatar is an international research and consulting group with the mission of improving the quality and efficiency of care in the nation’s hospitals. In addition to conducting surveys, Avatar also engages hospitals in process improvement, including training in service quality.

Dr. Michael Everett, Avatar founder and CEO said, “All medical centers in the U.S. expend significant energy improving the quality of care and the patient experience. Given such competition, St. Joseph Hospital [in] Bangor, Maine, and its staff are to be applauded for being a top performer. It is a remarkable achievement to be the best performer in inpatient care in the United States.”

March of Dimes bike tour

BREWER – As part of his third annual bike tour, John McClellan, president and CEO of Sprague Energy Corp., is heading a 1,000-mile ride from Maine to New York in order to raise money for the March of Dimes, according to Gene Staffiere, director of the Northern Maine Division, March of Dimes.

McClellan will kick off the tour from Searsport on Tuesday, June 20, and wrap up the tour in Portsmouth, N.H., Friday July 28.

The first leg of the Doing More Bike Tour will travel Route 1, departing at 5 a.m. from Searsport, peddling through Belfast and Rockland and arriving in Portland by 1 p.m.

Created in 2004, the bike tour raised $50,000 for Nashoba Learning Group Inc., as well as $50,000 for The Muscular Dystrophy Association. Last year, McClellan matched the previous year’s efforts by raising $50,000 for both the March of Dimes and Nashoba Learning Group Inc. by touring 16 Sprague Energy Corp. fuel terminals on his bike, averaging 100 miles a day.

The Nashoba Learning Group Inc. is a nonprofit school for children with autism based in New Hampshire, founded by McClellan’s wife, Elizabeth M. Martineau, in January 2003. McClellan is the school’s treasurer and serves on the board of trustees. He is also the father of one of the school’s students.