You did it! In early August 2021, our board thought we were going to have to close the Boothbay Region Health Center due to a cash flow crunch and a shortfall in donations of $110,000. As we hoped and prayed, you — our patients, as well as many residents, summer visitors and employers in the Boothbay region — came through, donating a total of $121,768 this fall. Then to top it off, local businesses, merchants, craftspeople, and artists donated over 60 items for our first virtual auction. Our goal was to raise $10,000, and we netted $11,514!

Thank you all so much for letting us know that you truly value having a convenient, affordable, quality primary health care center available for you and your friends and neighbors six days/week.

Thanks, too, to our amazingly talented, warm, and loving health care providers: Dr. Chip Teel, Physician's Assistant Andy Zuber, Family Nurse Practitioners Susan Lord and Whitney Tranchemontagne, and our Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Jennie McNeil, and Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Cathy Fisher.

And heartfelt thanks to our clinical support staff: Becky Alley, Practice Manager, Health Coordinators Caitlin Powers, Sydney Timberlake, and Aly Zuber; Medical Receptionists Chris Colwell and Stefanie Geroux, and our cheerful bookkeeper, Kalina Rogers.

Are we out of the woods? We think so. Although health insurance reimbursement and patients' payments do not fully cover the costs of providing primary health care in our rural community, we believe that we can now count on you — our patients, our supporters, and our taxpayers — to donate enough each year to fill the gap between what it costs to provide excellent primary health care to everyone in our community who needs it and what we're paid by commercial health insurers, by MaineCare, Medicare, and by the patients themselves.

Very few primary health care practices make money in this country. The few that do either charge a lot, and/or they're part of a larger health care system that balances the losses in primary health care with the profits from hospital procedures.

However, we all know that the better we take care of ourselves, proactively using family primary care and mental health services several times a year, the less likely we are to need costly hospitalizations. That's why it's the mission of our Boothbay Region Health Center in the Meadow Mall to make it as easy and affordable as possible for people in our community to be treated quickly and thoroughly.

Thank you all for investing in good health for the residents, visitors, and employees in the Boothbay region. And please have a healthy, happy and safe holiday season!