Pen Bay Medical Center
Linda Drinkwater, CPA, FHFMA,
Chief Financial Officer Pen Bay Medical Center & Waldo County General Hospital
Message from the CFO
The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly had a significant impact on our community and on our care team. It has also impacted our financial health. As we suspended non-urgent patient care services in the spring to prepare for a potential surge in coronavirus patients, we experienced a dramatic reduction in revenues. MaineHealth made a commitment to maintain jobs, pay and benefits during the pandemic, so operating expenses continued as budgeted. Although we implemented additional budget constraints and reduced capital expenditures to offset some of the lost revenue, we sustained significant operating losses.
Fortunately, PBMC and WCGH entered the pandemic in a position of financial strength. As soon as it was determined to be safe for patients, care teams and the community, services were resumed. Leadership focused on removing barriers that would prevent patients from returning to the hospital and provider practices to get the care they needed, which would also improve financial results.
Certainly, we still have a way to go, however, thanks to the discipline and commitment of every member of the care teams at PBMC and WCGH, and the community, we are making good progress towards our goal of returning to a position of financial strength to ensure that we continue to provide the very best health care to our communities.
Linda Drinkwater, CPA, FHFMA
Chief Financial Officer
Pen Bay Medical Center & Waldo County General Hospital
Pen Bay Medical Center
2,802
Inpatient Admissions133,002
Physician Practice16,888
Emergency Department Visits245
Births10,929
Virtual Visits (Telehealth and Phone)
Waldo County General Hospital
1,143
Inpatient Admissions73,388
Physician Practice / Rural Health Center Visits11,493
Emergency Department Visits119
Births1,948
Telehealth Visits
Telehealth
Challenging times often lead to innovative thinking. So it is with COVID-19 and telehealth.
After suspending non-emergency office visits as a way to protect patients and care team members during the pandemic, both PBMC and WCGH developed robust telehealth practices as a way to ensure that patients continued to receive the ongoing health care they needed.
With telehealth, a care provider meets with patients virtually over a secure connection to their smartphone, tablet or laptop when the patient and the care provider cannot be in the same place. Just like a regular health care appointment, patients can use a telehealth visit to discuss medical concerns, symptoms, get a prescription, a diagnosis and more.
PBMC and WCGH were able to quickly ramp up telehealth thanks in part to the support and resources of MaineHealth. The pioneering work on telehealth by Mike Towey, director of WCGH Speech Language Pathology, and his team also played an important role. They have used telehealth for several years to serve both local patients and those who live as far away as Europe and Asia.
Once practices at PBMC and WCGH resumed scheduling non-emergency appointments in early summer, the number of telehealth visits declined. However, the telehealth experience will remain an important option for delivering health care to our patients long after the pandemic. For one thing, it allows us to deliver many forms of care at a lower cost to our patients. It has also proven effective at delivering care to those who lack transportation, struggle to find childcare or have mobility limitations.
We expanded the use of telehealth in response to the pandemic; but it has proven itself as a way to make it easier for patients to access the care they need – and is making an important contribution to our vision of making our communities the healthiest in America.
Waldo County General Hospital