When change is afoot, rumors abound. Recently rumors have been circulating about upcoming changes at Lincoln County Healthcare, the parent organization that includes St. Andrews and Miles Memorial Hospital.

In April, in the face of economic losses, Lincoln County Healthcare ended outpatient surgery at St. Andrews Hospital, terminated 10.6 unfilled positions and laid off four full-time employees.

At the time, Board of Trustees Chairman Peter Mundy said the board was looking closely “at the services we offer and where we provide them” to assess the need for further changes in clinical programs.

Last week, the organization’s Chief Executive Officer Jim Donovan provided some insights on some of the changes ahead.

The overall question of what health services Lincoln County Healthcare will provide in the future and where those services will be provided still awaits an answer.

“Officially, we cannot talk about any clinical program changes until they are approved by MaineHealth,” Donovan said. MaineHealth is Lincoln County Healthcare’s parent organization.

He said clinical program changes, once approved, will take months to implement.

Clinical program changes

Lincoln County Healthcare’s Board of Trustees hired the global business consulting firm Navigant to review its healthcare programs and services and assess these in light of national trends. Over the last few months, consultants and a joint committee of physicians and trustees have met to review data and develop recommendations for clinical programs.

The board met June 28 to finalize their recommendations for clinical program changes, relying on Navigant’s data analyses and recommendations. The board’s recommendations and budget projections, once completed, will be brought to MaineHealth for their approval.

Donovan said he did not expect an approved clinical program plan will be available before August.

Finance department changes

Changes elsewhere in the organization are also expected.

Donovan said upcoming changes to the finance department are part of an ongoing effort to standardize practices across all MaineHealth organizations, including Lincoln County Healthcare. Over the last 15 years, most standardization has focused on the clinical side of operations Donovan said.

Over the last two years, MaineHealth began integrating the administrative side of its member organizations into one unified department at separate locations.

Donovan said MaineHealth decided against the approach of consolidating administrative employees into one large corporate office. Because all MaineHealth organizations are shifting to electronic health records, which can be accessed anywhere, staff do not need to be in the same location to share information instantly.

Information services/technology and human resources departments were the first administrative functions to be integrated into MaineHealth.

“The information services people who serve Lincoln County Healthcare became MaineHealth employees, but they did not move,” Donovan said. Integrating human resources departments followed a similar path.

“We may have some people changing roles and some people changing locations, but in neither of the cases have there been job losses,” he said.

Currently, Donovan said there are about 50 people in Lincoln County Healthcare’s finance department, with the majority located at St. Andrews Hospital.

MaineHealth plans to create two patient accounting offices, in Portland and Rockland, to serve all MaineHealth organizations. Donovan said workers in these offices will focus on “back room functions,” such as billing and collections. From a patient’s perspective, the financial services available locally will not change he said.

What this integration will mean to workers is not yet clear.

“People have been told you have a job, but you may have to move or you may have to work from home,” Donovan said. He said the finance department integration may take a couple of years to implement.