PEN BAY HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION 2015
SUMMER NEWSLETTER
FROM THE CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
We’re Better Together.
I’ve had the honor of serving patients and healthcare professionals for 17 years. In that time I’ve learned that patients have a hierarchy of needs—don’t harm me, heal me and be nice to me. An important part of doing no harm includes providing a safe and secure environment. In the last year, with the generous help of donors like you, we’ve been able to provide a more secure environment throughout our hospital. We recently installed the HUGS infant security system on our Labor and Delivery Unit using donated funds. The HUGS replaced the existing system and expanded our ability to monitor the movement of newborns throughout the unit. In addition we were able to purchase an access control system so at all times the staff have control of who enters and leaves the department.
Technology is not usually seen as warm and fuzzy but in this case our HUGS system ensures our new families can spend time bonding with their newest members and leave the other stuff to us. I want to sincerely thank you for your generosity. Erik Frederick Chief Operating Officer
Mark Biscone, Executive Director Waldo County Healthcare, Interim CEO Pen Bay Healthcare Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation Board of Trustees
Joanne Billington, Rockland Ann Bresnahan, Hope Mark Breton, Rockport Micki Colquhoun, Camden Jane Conrad, Tenants Harbor
Dr. Mark Eggena, Rockport Jane Merrill, Camden Caroline Morong, Camden Nathan Perkins, Camden Polly Saltonstall, Camden
Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation Staff
Ellie Willmann, Vice President of Development Sherry Gagne, Manager of Annual Giving and Research Jamie Geretz, Development Officer Jacob McCarthy, Director of Development Communications Deborah Schilder, Director of Grants and Foundation Relations Design by Pica
We’re Better Together.
$750,000 Bequest Creates Legacy of Care Pen Bay Healthcare was an important part of Marie Price’s life, so she made supporting it her legacy. A longtime volunteer at Pen Bay Medical Center, Price left $750,000 to Pen Bay Healthcare in her will. She designated most of that gift to Pen Bay Healthcare’s endowment, where it will provide support for healthcare excellence year after year.
Foundation Collaborates on Grants Looking to form a shared parent organization, Pen Bay Healthcare and Waldo County Healthcare are already collaborating in more than 40 areas. This includes the Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation, where Director of Grants and Foundation Relations Deb Schilder (left) is working with Regional Director of Community Health and Wellness Shannon Robbins and other partners on nine grant proposals worth up to $207,440.
Summer Events Thank Donors, Honor Physicians This summer, the Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation celebrated the generosity of donors with two events. More than 100 people including Nathan Perkins and Annemarie Ahearn, pictured, attended a sunset reception in Port Clyde July 17 that brought in $13,000 in donor support for the Foundation. Then, on August 13, new and veteran physicians met with members of the Foundation’s Wellspring Society at a special reception in Rockland.
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“Everyone goes into medicine because they want to help people.” — Dr. Lauren Michalakes
Q & A: SEEING THE PATIENT’S STORY Dr. Lauren Michalakes on end-of-life care and sharing experiences with patients. Director of Sussman House and Palliative Care Dr. Lauren Michalakes brings years of experience in hospice services and end-of-life care to Pen Bay Healthcare. Here, she talks about palliative care as the next frontier, the connections she makes with patients and their families, and Sussman House as a symbol of the community’s generosity. Palliative care (pronounced pal-lee-uh-tiv) is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. It focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family.
Dr. Lauren Michalakes discusses a patient’s care
with Sussman House team members.
Clockwise from right: Rob Wall, Heidi McCaffery, Kim Marquis and Dr. Lauren Michalakes.
How long have you been here, and how has it been? It’s been great. I’m actually back. When my husband and I moved here in 1999 I took a position with Kno-Wal-Lin as their medical director. But hospice was pretty small in those days and there was no such thing as palliative care. At this stage in my career it makes sense to come back to this particular program and try to pull it all together. Outpatient efforts in palliative care are sort of like the next frontier. What does palliative care mean? What does it look like? First of all, it’s the recognition that in the second part of the 20th century we medicalized death. Early 20th century people died at home and by the eighties and nineties it was something like 90 percent of people were dying in institutions. Yet, if you ask people where they want to be when they die, most say they want to be at home. The palliative paradigm says you can get curative treatment in parallel with interventions that support the best possible quality of life. Why did you choose this area of focus? Everyone goes into medicine because they want to help people. In hospice, where the interventions are very simple, you’re being present during the most important moments that patients and families share together and you’re included as part of that. It’s when you feel most pure to your
We’re Better Together.
initial and original goal to be a physician. It’s why we all went into medicine. Are there experiences of your own that make this the right field for you? I think you’re formed by your life experiences. I was in my early twenties and had a sister who died. I can specifically remember the physicians who said things well and the physicians who said things poorly and the way those words were communicated to my parents and my siblings directly affected the way we continued to live with that loss. But it’s also that I was always aware my patients were not their heart disease or their lung disease or their cancers. They are human beings living with the experience of being sick and dying and I feel so very connected and responsible for wanting that experience to go well. How do you see donors impacting the kind of work you do? There’s a big linkage there. I think that if you even just look at what happened here with Sussman House–the community wanted it and the community paid for it. Donating the resources to build that place indicates how important providing good care at the end of life is to people. That’s a powerful story to tell. 4
A SPEEDY RECOVERY When a driver of race cars and ambulances got sick, caregivers at Pen Bay Medical Center got him back on the road.
We’re Better Together.
As an ambulance driver, Chris Milton-Hall had been to the emergency department at Pen Bay Medical Center countless times before. But it felt different last winter the morning his wife Sandy found him lying in the basement barely coherent and immediately took him to the hospital. “I thought I had the flu but it just seemed to get worse and worse,” said Milton-Hall. “I was in really bad shape.” It didn’t take long for doctors at Pen Bay to diagnose something much more serious than the flu–double pneumonia with a bacterial infection. He spent the next six days at the hospital, then another week largely in bed at home. The recovery wasn’t easy (it was a month or two before he really felt like himself), but this summer Milton-Hall is back to doing what he loves—racing his Mazda Miata in the Sports Car Club of America. Milton-Hall’s racing career started in open wheel formula cars in the early seventies. He took a hiatus to work at Merrill Lynch for 32 years and then returned to racing shortly before he and Sandy moved to Maine in 2003. He races his Miata with a 1.3 liter engine in several races each year at street-style tracks throughout New England. Most recently, he returned from a race in Salisbury, Conn. with a first place finish.
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The skills he’s honed on the racetrack don’t necessarily translate to his other job as a volunteer ambulance driver for St. George Firefighters and Ambulance Association, Milton-Hall said. They’re both about anticipating what’s coming up ahead, but in the ambulance a smooth ride is necessary for the EMTs, paramedics and patients he’s transporting. There’s also an added social component to ambulance driving—he often offers information and reassurance to patients’ friends and family members at the scene. On the day last winter when Sandy drove him to Pen Bay Medical Center, Milton-Hall found himself on the opposite side of that conversation. He’d never been admitted to a hospital before, so the patience his caregivers showed and careful explanations they provided were important. Today, he credits his recovery—which took him from hospital bed to race track in a matter of months—to the excellent care he received at Pen Bay Medical Center. “They told me, ‘you feel terrible now, but you’re going to get better,’” Milton-Hall said. “And then they did everything right.”
“I really feel I received exceptionally good treatment.”
Grateful Patient After staff at Pen Bay Medical Center helped him get well, Chris Milton-Hall decided to show his appreciation. He named caregivers Dr. Mark McAllister, Dr. Liesbeth Tryzelaar, Michelle Smith and Peggy Flanagan in a gift to the Pen Bay Foundation. His generosity will support the annual fund, helping Pen Bay Healthcare provide charity care to people in the community, and it let his caregivers know how valued their efforts are.
— Chris Milton-Hall 6
EVERY DONOR, EVERY YEAR Gifts of every size play a part in a successful annual fund.
We’re Better Together.
How the Annual Fund Helps Pen Bay Healthcare
Annual Fund Facts
Each year Pen Bay Healthcare supporters give hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Annual Fund, a yearly effort to help Pen Bay Healthcare supplement operating expenses and improve patient care. Annual Fund gifts differ from capital gifts—like those that built Sussman House last year—in that they aren’t usually earmarked for specific bricks and mortar projects. They are typically spent in the year in which they are received.
100 percent of last year’s annual fund went directly to people in need.
More than $174,000 in annual fund gifts from the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2014 were donated to charity care, ensuring that people in our community get the care they need, regardless of their ability to pay. This time around, we’re going to raise even more before our 2015 fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. One of the most exciting things about the annual fund is that it’s a collective effort. That means small gifts are just as important as large gifts– what really matters is that donors like you make a gift every year. When you do that, you help provide quality care for members of your community. 7
Every gift, large and small, is meaningful.
Gifts allow staff to purchase items that support patient care. A strong annual fund helps leverage major gifts and secure grants.
To learn more about Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation’s Annual Fund, and discover how you can help, visit www.penbayhealthcare.org/support.
A MACHINE WITH HEART Mothers giving birth at Pen Bay Medical Center can now move freely and use hydrotherapy while still having their babies monitored, thanks to six new electronic fetal heart monitors. The monitors keep track of a fetus’s heart rate as well as the strength and duration of the mother’s contractions. They were made possible by a generous donation from the Cascade Foundation.
“These monitors improve mother’s comfort while maintaining mother and baby safety.” — Kathleen Hastings, BS, RN, IBCLC Women’s Health Director 8
WAYS TO GIVE When you make a gift to the Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation, you make a direct difference in the lives of people in your community. Your support ensures that Pen Bay Healthcare has the facilities, technology and skilled caregivers that Midcoast Maine needs to be healthy and well. When you support Pen Bay Healthcare, we’ll thank you for your gift, tell you what you accomplished with it, and share inspiring stories about how you made a difference.
We’re Better Together.
ANNUAL
PLANNED
Each year almost 1,000 donors support Pen Bay Healthcare. Their gifts, big and small, enhance the health of our community. Give online at www.penbayhealthcare.org/support.
Make a planned gift including a bequest or annuity today and you can realize tax benefits, leave a legacy and know your gift will help patients of Pen Bay Healthcare in the future.
MAJOR
GRATEFUL PATIENT
Keeping Midcoast Maine healthy is a major undertaking, and you can help by giving securities, real estate, cash or other substantial donations. Your generous support will make a difference.
Has a Pen Bay Healthcare caregiver made a difference for you? Share your appreciation by making a gift in their name. MEMORIAL Remember a loved one by making a memorial gift to Pen Bay Healthcare.
Please be a partner in health. Support the Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation today.
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Learn more about how you can keep your neighbors, friends and family in Midcoast Maine well.
Call 207-921-6705 or visit www.penbayhealthcare.org/support
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The number of Pen Bay Healthcare employees and family members who gave back to the community by participating in the annual Keep Rockport Beautiful cleanup on June 27. The crew picked up litter along Old County Road and South Street as part of a community effort to beautify Rockport.
PEN BAY HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION 2015
22 White Street Rockland, ME 04841
For more information on how you can support Pen Bay Healthcare and its family of services in our community, please contact the Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation Office at 207-921-6705 or visit www.penbayhealthcare.org/support. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/penbayhealth.
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