BANGOR – The city’s three leading health care providers – Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, St. Joseph Healthcare and Penobscot Community Health Care – announced Thursday that they have established a new collaborative relationship to better serve the health care needs of the region.

At a press conference at St. Joseph Hospital, leaders from the three institutions said their intention is to make it easier for area residents to get the care they need, improve the management of chronic conditions and make the best use of available equipment and technology.

Their new relationship may also make it easier to build new facilities and bring cutting-edge treatments and diagnostics to Bangor.

The goals of the cooperative relationship are primarily patient-centered and not administrative, the health leaders said. For example, all three institutions are well into the process of developing electronic medical records, or EMRs, to replace patients’ traditional paper charts, according to Sister Mary Norberta, president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph Healthcare. But to be most effective, the three different systems must be able to “talk” to each other – so the group will work on identifying a connecting technology that can link their EMRs.

Especially in emergency care, Sister Norberta noted, it is essential for doctors to be able to obtain accurate, current information about patients who may usually be cared for at one of the other institutions. This would also help doctors identify patients who go from one facility to another trying to get prescription painkillers or other addictive drugs, she said.

Michelle Hood, president and CEO of EMHS, said the health care groups will use their collective resources to improve the management of chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, lung diseases and obesity. The management of chronic disease is identified as a priority issue in the Community Health Needs Assessment recently conducted by EMHS. Hood said supporting employer-based wellness programs is another area where the collaborating groups can have a positive impact.

The Rev. Robert Carlson, president of PCHC on Union Street, said the collaboration will create more internship opportunities for aspiring health care professionals from area colleges, including students of nursing, pharmacy, dental hygiene, physical therapy and other allied professions, at a time when it is increasingly difficult to attract and retain health care professionals.

PCHC is among the largest nonhospital health care providers in New England, with about 45,000 patients in and around Bangor. Because many of those patients are covered by Medicare and Medicaid, and because Bangor is considered a “medically underserved area,” PCHC is governed by special federal regulations and reimbursed at a higher rate than most physician practices.

All three leaders said their collaboration would help make the most efficient use of their existing facilities and equipment.

It is likely that it also will make it easier to obtain expensive new health care facilities and equipment in Bangor, according to Dr. Josh Cutler, acting director of the Maine Quality Forum. The forum, created by Gov. John Baldacci’s Dirigo Health Reform Act of 2003, is charged with assessing medical technology needs and guiding the state’s Certificate of Need office, which must approve big-ticket investments in technology and bricks-and-mortar projects.

Cutler said Thursday that patient-centered collaborations such as the one announced in Bangor have an advantage when it comes to garnering Certificate of Need approval.

“State health policy is looking to promote collaboration rather than competition” among health care providers, Cutler said, and proposals that demonstrate multiprovider collaboration for the benefit of patients will take priority over single-provider applications.

The technicalities of the Bangor collaboration are spelled out in a formal document, assuring that the friendly new spirit doesn’t cross the line into illegal, anti-competitive collusion. State and federal antitrust laws prohibit health care institutions from price-setting, dividing their territories and other acts of collusion that impede competition.