Mother Mary Angela Awards

BANGOR – St. Joseph Healthcare and the sponsoring Felician Sisters celebrated Founder’s Day on Nov. 17 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.

The awards are presented to individuals who continue the mission of Blessed Mother Mary Angela, who on Nov. 21, 1855, founded the Felician Sisters. Individuals are nominated by their peers and recipients selected by St. Joseph Healthcare’s mission advisory committee of employees.

This year’s award recipients:

. Joseph Harkins, a physician assistant with the hospital’s Northeast Inpatient Medical Service.

. Kathleen Barry, director of registration and reimbursement, representing non-clinical employees.

. Hospice volunteer Theresa Bourassa.

Harkins of Bangor joined NIMS in 2000 as part of a clinical rotation as a physician assistant student and remained with the hospital as a fulltime physician assistant after he completed the P.A. program. Before coming to St. Joseph Hospital, Harkins was a caregiver at Webster House, a group home for children in New Hampshire.

“Taking care of people has always been first nature to me,” said Harkins. For someone who enjoys caring for people, he said, St. Joseph is unique. “There’s a genuine compassion for people and a genuine dedication to good medical care.”

Barry, who lives in Old Town, came to St. Joseph Hospital 15 years ago after working in the health care reimbursement field at a community mental health center in Portsmouth, N.H.

“I can do what I do because I have a great staff of people who do their jobs very well. Everything we do benefits the patients and we keep that foremost in our minds – the patient comes first,” she said.

Bourassa of Glenburn has been a volunteer in St. Joseph’s Hospice program for the past two years. She comes to the Bangor area from Waterville, where she was a volunteer for Waterville Area Hospice.

Though she has only been with St. Joseph for a relatively short time, said Bourassa, “I feel like I have been here a lot longer. I love St. Joseph Hospital. There’s a caring spirit here that is wonderful, and we all carry that over into hospice care.”

As a volunteer, she provides comfort and heartfelt listening for hospice patients and their families, a gift which she says is always returned several-fold. “I feel so honored to be a part of the hospice team. Sometimes, by just listening to our patients, you come away with a renewed sense of strength and hope about life.”

Lights of Remembrance

BANGOR – St. Joseph Hospital’s Auxiliary invites members of the community to remember and honor loved ones this holiday season by participating in its Lights of Remembrance program.

A gift of $10 or more will include a special ornament with a loved one’s name on the Remembrance Tree in the hospital’s lobby. A gift of $25 or more will include a special ornament with a loved one’s name on the Remembrance Tree, as well as provide the donor with a keepsake ornament.

A gift of $100 will include a special ornament with a loved one’s name included on the Remembrance Tree annually. All gifts are acknowledged in an album displayed in the hospital’s lobby.

Those who wish to purchase a Light of Remembrance may obtain an order form at the St. Joseph Hospital front desk, gift shop or contact the St. Joseph Healthcare public affairs office at 262-1720.

The public is invited to St. Joseph Hospital’s Broadway entrance at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, for a night of holiday celebration including the lighting of the Remembrance Tree and holiday display, caroling with St. John’s Catholic Church adult and children’s choirs, holiday refreshments and a visit from Santa.

Institute for Medical Improvement

BREWER – The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s predominant and standard-setting accrediting body in health care, recently came to visit with Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems’ Institute for Medical Improvement.

The institute, a collaboration of healthcare and research leaders, has gained the attention of the joint commission for work on the effective management and care of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

“Members of the joint commission development team were pleased to have the opportunity to visit the COPD management programs. It is always beneficial for us to speak with staff and hear about the progress being made in advancing the care of COPD patients,” said the executive director for marketing and product development for the joint commission, Laure Dudley, after the commission’s visit.

COPD is a broad term used to describe lung disease related to air flow obstruction – for instance, conditions such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema are grouped under COPD. To date, there has been little research done on COPD, but with the efforts put forth by the institute, the joint commission is working to create a national standard for the treatment of the chronic disease.

The commission spent the day meeting with members of the institute and visiting with Husson Internal Medicine, an EMMC primary care practice and collaborator on the project. Piloted at Horizons Ashland Health Center and Horizons Pulmonology Services, both departments of The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle, the project assists practices in providing efficient, effective high-quality care for patients living with this chronic illness.

A member of the Institute’s expert panel for COPD, Dr. Lee Ann Baggott of the Easy Breathing Clinic in Augusta, helped to raise awareness of the institute’s work. Following the visit, Baggott said that “the commission was genuinely impressed with the high quality work being done on COPD by the institute as there still remains very little literature or other resources out there regarding the management of COPD.”

The joint commission also visited two other physician practice centers in northern Maine to review COPD care programs there. Commission members are reviewing what they learned and will incorporate their findings into the design of a commission-approved care management program.

The Institute for Medical Improvement is part of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems.

For more information about EMHS and the Institute for Medical Improvement, visit www.emh.org.

Honor for BAVN

BANGOR – Home Health Interactive recently announced HomeCare Elite 2006, its inaugural compilation of the most successful home care providers in the United States. The list names the top 25 percent of home health agencies whose performance measures in quality, improvement and financial performance are the best.

Bangor Area Visiting Nurses is among those honored with this distinction. In addition, BAVN was selected as a top 500 home care provider nationwide.

“We are so pleased to be recognized in this way,” said Helen Genco, director of BAVN. “Our direct care providers and support and administrative staffs made this honor possible. Many thanks for their support and dedication to serving our patients and families. This is a fitting way for us to celebrate National Home Care and Hospice Month, held each November.”

View HomeCare Elite 2006 at www.homehealthinteractive.com/docs/2006HomeCareElite.pdf.

The data for the study was based on publicly available information. Home Health Interactive is part of a portfolio of independent health care business and regulatory information services for a range of health care providers, practitioners and their administrative staff offered by DecisionHealth in Rockville, Md.

Maine in Motion

The Maine Governor’s Council on Physical Activity is working with Gov. John Baldacci to build a healthy and active future for Maine. Last month, the council launched a new Web component of Maine in Motion, a statewide health and fitness program, which encourages the Maine public to participate in physical activity year round.

The program will be rolled out online through the Web site at www.maineinmotion.org, which will allow participants access to resources, such as walking events in their locality, and health tips.

The site provides free online tools to encourage people to keep walking, running, cycling and being active in a variety of ways. It includes a participant guide, a menu of tour options and an exercise log to help track steps, time and distance traveled toward personal goals.

Registered participants may view their progress online and receive e-mail reminders and tips throughout the program. The participant guide is also a primary education and advocacy tool for the benefits of physical activity and good nutritional habits and provides helpful tips on safety, equipment and additional resources.

Maine in Motion encourages participants to follow one of its themed activities or Tours of Maine. The tours are highlighted either online or in paper format and featured at certain times of year, such as fall hikes in November.

But participants may pick any of the current tours for benchmarking activities against real-life scenarios. In addition, Nordic walking has been added as a featured activity and opportunities to participate in walking clinics in different areas of the state will be part of the program.

Other program features include incentives and contests, such as the Governor’s Challenge, fun learning and social opportunities for physical fitness, and specially developed materials to guide program implementation in group settings.

Virtual trips that take place within Maine will highlight some of the features and history that characterize Maine’s uniqueness. The program targets schools, work sites, families and individuals.

Through the use of motivators such as logs and supporting materials, participants keep track of their daily activity levels by recording time spent being active or through the use of a pedometer to track the number of steps walked. Incentive prizes will be given to participants who are eligible on a quarterly basis and who meet goals of increasing daily physical activity levels.

Joan Benoit Samuelson, co-chairman of Maine Governor’s Council on Physical Activity, said, “In Maine, if the current trends of overweight and obesity persist, our state will continue to face substantial health problems related to excess weight, with deadly consequences. In fact, an estimated four people die every day in Maine from an underlying cause of poor nutrition or physical inactivity. The Maine in Motion program offers the people of Maine a powerful long-term strategy for maintaining active lifestyles and protection from obesity and overweight and associated health risks.”

For further information, visit Maine Governor’s Council on Physical Activity at www.maineinmotion.org or call 622-7566, ext. 220 or 230.