A newsletter of health information from Mayo Region Hospital * Summer 1998

Joyce Doolittle of Bowerbank, Left, was elected president of the Mayo Regional Hospital Auxiliary at the group's spring meeting, and was installed by outgoing president Diane Deane of Guilford, right.

Other officers are Grace Leeman, vice president; Pauline Albee, recording secretary; Donna Wilson, treasurer; Juanita Cushing, assistant treasurer; and Ramona McPherson, corresponding secretary.

Mayo Regional Hospital still intends to operate a new physician practice in the Milo/Brownville area, but the opening date has been set back.

Thomas Groblewski, D. O., a third-year family practice resident at Eastern Maine Medical Center, last year gave a verbal commitment and signed a letter of intent to begin practicing in the Milo/ Brownville area by August 1 as part of the National Health Service Corps.

This spring, however, Dr. Groblewki backed out of that arrangement. Citing family obligations, he will instead relocate to Massachusetts when his residency training is complete.

Dana Fadley, manager of physician practices for Mayo Regional Administrative Services Corporation, said the hospital remains committed to opening a practice in the Milo/Brownville area, which has been designated a medically underserved region.

Mayo officials have scheduled interviews this summer with other family practice physicians who are interested in serving the Milo/Brownville area. The hospital has also reviewed possible locations for physician offices.

Fadley said Mayo hopes to open the new physician practice in Milo or Brownville by the end of this year, or the summer of 1999 at the latest.

The 29 employees who were recognized for length of service at Mayo Region Hospital's annual awards dinner during the National Hospital Week represented the full range of hospital operations.

They included employees from the laboratory, housekeeping, radiology, dietary, business office, admissions / registration, medical / surgical nursing, medical records, engineering, operating rooms, EMS ambulance, physical therapy, obstetrics, materials management and the emergency department.

Five years: Beh Allard, Christine Craig, BJ Dumoulin, Kathleen Fisk, Sheldon Leonard, Margaret Schneider, Betty Simpson, Camille Smart and Martha Turke.

Ten years: Nadine Abbott, Kathleen Bellemare, Helen Brawn, Sheri Conley, Mark Donaghy, Gail Goulette, Robin Hill, Nancy Murphy, Lisa Small and Peggy Wakeland.

Fifteen years: Vickie Clement, Beverly Covey, Susan Jardine, Susan Larrabee, Bayne Martin and John Nichols.

Twenty years: Beth Bell, Richard Brown, Susan Lancaster and Cindy Smart.

Pamela Nourse, M. D. will begin work at Mayo Regional Hospital on Aug. 17, practicing general surgery with Dr. Robert Bach.

Dr. Nourse graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine and has completed her residency training at Michigan State University. She spent four years in the U. S. Army after medical school before finishing her residency in Michigan.

Dr. Nourse's family lives in the Damariscotta area of coastal Maine and she is looking forward to returning to the Northeast.

Mayo is recruiting another general surgeon and hopes to have that slot filled soon.

It was just a coincidence that Mayo Regional Hospital's laboratory was inspected during National Medical Laboratory Week, April 12 - 18.

Because of that timing, lab employees celebrated both Laboratory Week and the successful completion of the survey by the Commission on Office Laboratory Accreditation.

Lab Manager Jane Boutilier said the COLA inspector evaluated Mayo's lab on April 13 and 14 using 416 standards, and found only two minor citations that require documented action. That 0.5 percent variance rate may be further reduced, since the COLA inspector said one citation was so minor it may be thrown out after review by the full COLA board.

Boutilier said full accreditation of Mayo's lab is assured for another two years.

The lab was last accredited in 1996 by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. COLA was chosen as the accrediting agency this time since it acquired that status from the federal Health Care Financing Administration in 1997. COLA previously had surveyed only physician office laboratories.

The COLA survey included a review of the lab's full test menu: procedures for each test performed; quality control measures performed and documented during each day of patient testing; rmedial action taken when quality controls did not meet criteria; quarterly proficiency testing; and maintenance records for lab instruments.

Also included was a review of all personnel files to document qualifications; quality control and proficiency testing data for the past two years; quality improvement records; continuing education data; reports of Dahl-Chase Pathology Associates visits; documentation of the accuracy, precision and linearity on instrumentation before it was used for testing patient samples; safety, healthe and infection control information. The COLA inspector conducted a lab walk-through to verify that employees follow protocols from written procedures.

Boutilier said the lab made no special preparation for the COLA survey.

"We do the work every day. If they walked in a month from now, we'd be ready," she said.

Mayo's lab is staffed all 24 hours during weekdays and during the day on weekends.

A total of 14 medical lab technicians and medical technologists are employed at the hospital and the Dexter Outpatient Lab.

Last year Boutilier said they processed over 300,000 patient tests and over 200,000 quality control specimens.

Common procedures include cholesterol tests, complete blood counts, a variety of chemical panels, and drug and alcohol screens. The laboratory includes a blood bank for patients who may require blood transfusions during their hospital stay.

GUILFORD - A construction project will begin in July to expand the town-owned medical building on Park Street, nearly doubling the facility's size.

The work being undertaken by the Town of Guilford and Mayo Regional Hospital will consolidate local physician practices in one location and create greater efficiencies for delivering medical services.

The building now houses Guilford Medical Associates, a physician practice operated by Mayo Regional Administrative Services Corporation, a hospital subsidiary. The expansion will increase the office space for that practice, and also allow the relocation of Norumbega Medical Specialists' Guilford office to the Park Street site. Norumbega, a physician practice based in Greenville, now has offices across town on School Street.

Discussions on expanding the Guilford medical building began early in 1997. With three medical providers -- family practice physicians James Berry and Usha Reddy, and family nurse practitioner Lisa Bartley -- practicing at Guilford Medical Associates, the building had too few patient examination rooms. And there was no room for growth despite an increase in patient usage.]

Momentum gathered in the fall of 1997, when the Hospital Administrative District 4 board agreed to contribute 50 percent of the construction costs if Guilford agreed to expand the building. The town moved forward by purchasing an adjoining property at the corner of Park Street and Hudson Avenue, part of which will be used for parking at the enlarged medical building.

The scope of the expansion increased when Norumbega asked if its Guilford office could share the medical building with Guilford Medical Associates. Plans were revised to add 1,722 square feet to the existing 2,000 -square-foot building, with five new exam rooms.

Voters at Guilford's annual town meeting in March authorized selectmen to borrow up to $100,000 to epand the building. The town's share will be borrowed in such a manner that payments will be made only from rental income paid by the physician practices, and not from property taxes.

A major Guilford employer, Hardwood Products Co., also pledged $12,500 toward the construction project.

Plans for the new building have been drawn by Peter Martell, a Guilford selectman and Hardwood Products engineer, with the building's layout based on input from Dana Fadley, group physician practice manager at Mayo.

Haley Construction of Sangerville will be responsible for site preparation, French Construction of Guilford will do the foundation work, and John Libera of Abbot has been hired as the building's general contractor.

Total cost of the project is estimated at between $150,000 and $175,000. Martell said once construction begins in July, it should be completed within 90 days.

The expanded medical building will be staffed by Guilford Medical Associates Monday through Friday with Drs. Berry and Reddy, and nurse practitioner Bartley. Norumbega Medical Specialists expects to have one medical provider on site four or five days each week.

The expanded building will have room to add another medical provider if demand warrants.