Our communities need a strong Northern Light Health
By Miles Theeman
Once upon a time, there was a hospital that could!
In the last half century, Eastern Maine General Hospital grew into Eastern Maine Medical Center, Eastern Maine Healthcare, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and now Northern Light Health. Its transformation was led by three leaders — Robert Brandow, Norm Ledwin and Michelle Hood — each with a very different personality and style but all with a clear vision — to provide Mainers timely access to high-quality, comprehensive care, wherever its facilities and services were located and to create and maintain a positive work environment for the caregivers and support staff who took care of those patients.
In addition, they understood their role in supporting the ambulatory care centers, non-member hospitals and other caregivers throughout the region and the state. Equally important, leadership was supported and guided by strong corporate boards that shared that vision.
Sadly, in five short years, accelerated in the past 12 months, it appears to me that corporate leadership and the board of directors have managed to unravel much of that good work and leave us to wonder about the next shoe to drop.
Every organization undergoes change. COVID affected every hospital in the U.S., many hospitals struggle with inadequate Medicaid rates, others have difficulty recruiting providers and staff, to name three issues. But the successful are bold and decisive in addressing current challenges and future landscapes. They can stare into the abyss and create a vision for the future. They develop a comprehensive plan that is openly shared with its stakeholders; and leadership and board members stand tall and transparent in addressing the concerns, criticisms, hopes and fears of those affected.
Neither Northern Light Health’s corporate leadership nor its board have communicated such a plan. Their apparent “death by a thousand cuts” approach as seen through a series of announcements on its numerous outsourcings, layoffs and program closings, tied to a “we are losing money” thread, is an insult to its administrators, staff and communities. It is equally clear to me that Northern Light Health is painfully reactive rather than proactive and appears to have little interest in keeping patients, employees and the community informed.
Corporate leadership, generally invisible to the region, seem content to dispatch beleaguered communications staff to deliver still another “we are closing X” announcement, leaving its public with no obvious collective way to respond. And Northern Light Health’s board of directors, who should be representing the healthcare interests of the region’s residents, appears painfully silent.
It is long past due for Northern Light Health to offer its vision for the next one, three, five years. Mainers are not naïve. They need to be honestly informed. Both the hundreds of thousands of residents who rely on Northern Light Health, as well as the thousands of dedicated hard-working caregivers and support personnel (who turn a pleasant face to the public while living with constant uncertainty), deserve so much better. Our communities, our region and our state need a strong, sustainable Eastern Maine Medical Center and Northern Light Health.
Theeman worked for 45 years in various leadership capacities at Eastern Maine Medical Center, Eastern Maine Healthcare, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and Northern Light Health.