MDI Hospital wins national laurels

BAR HARBOR – For officials at the hospital in this scenic seaside town, trying to find effective ways to provide health care services to the dispersed population it serves can be challenging.

Most of Mount Desert Island is made up of Acadia National Park, which separates many local villages from each other with large tracts of undeveloped land.

An even more substantial isolating factor is the coastal waters that surround MDI and separate it from some of the smaller islands that lie farther offshore.

But Mount Desert Island Hospital has found success in some programs it has established to help bridge those gaps. That is why the hospital has been recognized by the National Rural Health Association as Outstanding Rural Health Organization of the year.

Arthur Blank, president and CEO of the hospital, traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, last week to receive the honor at NRHA’s awards ceremony.

On Monday, Blank cited several reasons MDI Hospital received the award.

Through a telemedicine program that connects outer island residents with doctors by remote cameras on the Maine Seacoast Mission vessel Sunbeam, it has found an effective way to get those residents to be examined and receive treatment, he said.

It has created an outreach program in Southwest Harbor to establish connections with people who have not sought out the hospital’s services. He added it has strengthened those connections by providing patients with care managers who help them navigate the often complicated system and make sure they are able to keep up with their medical needs.

“It’s a huge challenge. There are cultural reasons why they have not accessed the [health] system,” Blank said of some of the hospital’s more remote patients. “[Officials at NRHA] understand the challenge of serving 10,000 people as dispersed as ours.”

Health education also is important, Blank said. Distributing information is difficult in rural settings, where ready means of communication often are unavailable.

The Sunbeam’s telemedicine program and the hospital’s anti-coagulation clinic, where patients taking blood-thinners are tested and consult with care managers on a weekly basis, make it easier to educate local residents on how to take better care of themselves, he said.

Technology is one way this has become possible, according to Blank. Without computer connections that enable an island resident to sit on the Sunbeam and be examined by a doctor miles away, many people would not be getting the treatment they need, he said.

The availability of other technologies, such as a small camera that can be swallowed so it can pass through the digestive tract, also helps improve the hospital’s health services.

But Blank was direct when it came to the matter of health care financing. He said the financial system will have to be fixed if hospitals are going to continue to provide effective services to the communities they serve.

He said the state owes MDI Hospital $3.4 million in back Medicaid payments.

“There needs to be concerted political action to decide how health care is going to be paid for,” Blank said.

The NRHA award is one of several honors the hospital has received recently, including being named for the fifth year in a row among the top hospitals nationwide for patient satisfaction, according to hospital officials. It also recently has been recognized by the Governor’s Council on Physical Activity.

The NRHA was founded 30 years ago and has 11,000 member organizations, Blank said.

“There’s nothing more gratifying than being recognized by one’s peers,” he said. “Our staff should feel very proud to be recognized that way.”