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Charities president

BANGOR – Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems President and CEO M. Michelle Hood announced that Michael Crowley has been appointed the new president of Healthcare Charities. Crowley’s appointment was recognized recently by the Healthcare Charities board of directors at its meeting in Bangor.

Crowley has been a leader in the philanthropy efforts of EMHS over the last 10 years and is dedicated to seeing continued growth in this area, Hood said.

“Michael has endless energy, he always has great ideas and plans, and I know Healthcare Charities is in good hands with Michael at the helm,” Hood said.

Crowley, a native of Millinocket, is well-known and respected throughout the state. He is dedicated to the people in this region, Healthcare Charities and EMHS, said board chairwoman Barbara Fister.

“Michael is passionate about everything he does, he is organized and he has vision – three things that make a great a leader and are especially important qualities for the stewardship of community funds,” Fister said.

Crowley succeeds Ken Hews, who is retiring from EMHS in December.

“Michael truly wants to make sure that our friends and neighbors in Maine have the very best health care available. I am leaving the future of Healthcare Charities in excellent hands,” Hews said.

Crowley said the values he learned growing up in the heart of the Katahdin region continue to influence his life personally and professionally.

He joined the Healthcare Charities team in 1996, and his enthusiasm for community service and goodwill has helped expand services throughout EMHS.

“I love this work – and the role of EMHS across much of Maine,” Crowley said. “I’m not a doctor or a nurse, but I have been given the opportunity to help ensure that people right here in our community have access to quality care, the most up-to-date technology and the very latest care options.

“I am honored to be in such a position in a place I call home,” he said. “And I am honored to be a part of the EMHS team with so many talented and hardworking people who are all committed to the same goal – caring for the people of Maine.”

Crowley has served as a member of the Bangor City Council and mayor. He also worked to bring economic development strategies into the region as former executive director of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce and as a founding board member and past chairman of Bangor’s National and American Folk Festival.

He is chairman of the Penobscot County Jail board of visitors, vice chairman of the American Red Cross Pine Tree Chapter, member of the Eastern Maine Development Corp. executive committee, and member of the Eastern Maine Community College president’s advisory council.

Ribbon cutting

OLD TOWN – The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Helen Hunt Health Center has been rescheduled for noon Monday, Dec. 10, at 242 Brunswick St. The center is part of Penobscot Community Health Care.

St. Joseph Founder’s Day

BANGOR – St. Joseph Healthcare and the Felician Sisters celebrated Founder’s Day on Nov. 20 by announcing the recipients of the annual Mother Mary Angela Awards, the highest honor bestowed to St. Joseph Healthcare employees and volunteers.

One award each is given in three categories: clinical employee, nonclinical employee and volunteer, to individuals who continue the mission of Blessed Mother Mary Angela, who on Nov. 21, 1855, founded the Felician Sisters.

Individuals are nominated for the award by their peers and the three recipients are selected by St. Joseph Healthcare’s mission advisory committee which consists of employees from within the organization.

This year’s award recipients are Charles Rich of Bangor, volunteer; Carol Voteur of Bradley, radiology office manager, non-clinical employee; and nurse Vonda Hatch of Dixmont, director of risk management, clinical employee.

. Charles Rich has been a volunteer at St. Joseph Hospital for 18 years, transporting patients to and from the radiology department. A former pharmacist who just celebrated his 90th birthday, Rich enjoys the camaraderie and friendship he feels at the hospital. “They don’t treat me like just another person here. They really make you feel part of things.”

. Carol Voteur, who has been office manager in the radiology department for the past five years, says she is “surprised, and very happy” with her recognition as a Mother Angela Award recipient. She, too, gives her fellow employees credit for making her job at the hospital worthwhile. “I truly love it here. Everyone gets along well. I just couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with.”

. Vonda Hatch, from Dixmont, began her career at St. Joseph Hospital in 1972 as a part-time nurse in the Critical Care Unit. She has held several nursing positions including evening supervisor and Critical Care Unit nurse manager. She is the hospital’s director of risk management.

“There are many employees here who go the extra mile and are very deserving of the Mother Angela Award,” said Hatch. “I feel very much honored to be selected.”

New Web site on HIV

AUGUSTA – The Department of Health and Human Services’ Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a new Web site is geared toward the more than 1,100 people in Maine who live with HIV today.

PositiveME.org was launched recently to offer a new way to think about and address the health care needs of people with HIV-AIDS.

PositiveME.org offers those living with HIV-AIDS a welcoming and anonymous place to gather information and determine the best ways to live healthily and confidently. The goal of those who produced the Web site is to build confidence and reduce stigma through the use of technology.

“We live in such a technological era. People are always looking for ways to get reliable information quickly,” said Dr. Dora Anne Mills. “PositiveME.org is offering the HIV-positive community in Maine information that will add to the quality of their lives.”

The initiative began through the Maine CDC’s HIV Care Program. Its commitment to providing medication adherence education and support to all Mainers living with HIV led to the site’s development.

PositiveME.org offers HIV-positive Mainers important resources to help address the physical and emotional challenges, an interactive calendar where visitors are invited to submit community events, and a focus on Maine residents who are low-income, uninsured or underinsured, who may be isolated in rural communities.

“The goal of PositiveME.org is to create a comfortable environment and reconnect people who live with HIV-AIDS with the community that supports them,” said Mills.

PositiveME.org is funded through the Maine CDC, Department of Health and Human Services and the Ryan White Treatment Modernization Act, which was enacted by the United States Congress to improve the quality and availability of care for low-income, uninsured and underinsured individuals and families affected by HIV disease.

Ryan White programs work with cities, counties, states and local community-based organizations to provide services to more than 500,000 Americans each year who do not have sufficient health care coverage or financial resources for coping with HIV disease.

For more information on the Ryan White Treatment Modernization Act, visit http://hab.hrsa.gov/history.htm.

AIDS Memorial Quilt

ORONO – Portions of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be shown 5-8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, at the Best Western Black Bear Inn.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is the largest ongoing community arts project in the world. Each of the colorful panels in the quilt was made to remember the life of a person lost to AIDS. One section of eight 3-by-6-foot panels will be on display at the two Maine venues. More than 40,000 panels now comprise the quilt.

The event is sponsored by the HIV Prevention Education Program at the Maine Department of Education as part of the annual World AIDS Day awareness activities on Dec. 1.

The HIV Prevention Education Program at the Department of Education provides annual training and technical assistance to school administrative units and agencies serving youth on issues surrounding HIV.

HIV infections have risen in Maine and continue to be among young adults. Nationally, one out of every two new HIV infections – one out of three in Maine – is among those under 35 years of age.

Maine’s school administrative units have responded to the HIV epidemic by providing a high level of HIV prevention education at the middle and high school levels without a state mandate. Ninety-eight percent of these schools provide HIV education.

The goals of the AIDS Memorial Quilt are to provide a creative means for remembrance and healing, illustrate effectively the enormity of the AIDS pandemic, increase awareness of HIV and AIDS throughout the general public, assist others with HIV infection prevention education and raise funds for community-based AIDS service organizations.

For more information, call Jody Leary at 624-6692 or e-mail hiv.doe@maine.gov.

Best Practices Award

BANGOR – Bangor Internal Medicine Associates, an internal medicine practice affiliated with St. Joseph Healthcare, has been selected by the Maine Health Management Coalition to receive a Best Practices Award for achieving two Pathways to Excellence Blue Ribbon Awards for 2007.

Only a handful of practices in Maine were awarded the distinction this year. In addition to recognition for excellence in medical practice, the award grants Bangor Internal Medicine Associates Tier One Status with the Maine State Employees Health Plan, a designation which allows state employee plan members to receive care from physicians and other practitioners at the practice without paying an annual deductible fee.

More than 200 Maine physician practices participating in this year’s Pathways to Excellence program submitted patient outcome data on diabetes and-or heart disease to the Maine Health Information Center for evaluation. Some practices also submitted data on how well clinical office systems are used to track patient care.

Bangor Internal Medicine Associates received a Blue Ribbon designation in both the diabetes care and clinical office systems categories.

The Maine Health Management Coalition is a consortium of employers, physicians, health plans and hospitals whose mission is to improve the safety and quality of health care in the state.