BELFAST – Waldo County General Hospital joined with Maine Medical Center’s Vital Health Network on Tuesday to provide hospital patients with access to the same state-of-the-art health care that is available to patients in Maine Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit in Portland.

“This system immediately expands the horizons of this hospital. It instantly provides us with a highly qualified intensivist [a physician who specializes in the care of critically ill patients], and the resources it puts at our fingertips are amazing,” said Louise Gardner, the hospital’s ICU nurse manager.