In two meetings in as many weeks, the St. Andrews task force formally asked for a six-month moratorium on hospital changes, hired a lawyer and began the serious work of organizing volunteers and acquiring and analyzing Lincoln County Healthcare data.

The four-town task force was formed in response to Lincoln County Healthcare’s decision to close the St. Andrews Hospital emergency room in April 2013 and to replace it with an urgent care facility. Because of the emergency room closure, St. Andrews will lose its hospital license and will also close its skilled nursing beds wing. The task force’s goal is to retain these healthcare services in a manner yet to be determined. 

Selectmen Chuck Cunningham (Chairman, Boothbay), Valerie Augustine (Boothbay Harbor), Smith Climo (Southport) and Stuart Smith (Edgecomb) are the town’s task force representatives and Boothbay Town Manager Jim Chaousis is its facilitator. The committee will rely on volunteers to staff work groups and to provide funding and expertise.

As of September 4, Chaousis reported that $3,500 had been donated to the task force effort by two donors and 57 people had signed up as potential volunteers. Chaousis said legal fees (the task force has retained Julius Ciembroniewicz of the Augusta-based firm Kozak & Gayer) would quickly deplete financial resources and asked for public financial support. 

“This project won’t fund itself. If we run out of money, we stop.” Chaousis said.

Under an inter-town agreement, which is still under review, the Town of Boothbay will act as fiscal agent, receiving, tracking and expending any donated funds. Anyone interested in donating to the task force should contact the Boothbay Town Office. Chaousis said any collected funds not spent by the task force will be given to the Boothbay Region Ambulance Service’s capital improvement fund.

Over the course of two meetings, the task force identified specific projects for work groups to address. As of September 4, these included exploring Rep. Bruce MacDonald’s community hospital administrative district proposal; defining ambulance service needs; working with Lincoln County Healthcare; working with Lincoln County Regional Planning Office on economics and transportation issues; analyzing Lincoln County Healthcare data and task force fundraising. Several volunteers offered their services during the public meetings and Chaousis encouraged others in the community to contact him to volunteer.

Public comments and concerns dominated the first task force meeting and continued, but there were fewer during the second meeting. Tom Hagan asked the task force to investigate the governance of St. Andrews Hospital and expressed concern that Lincoln County Healthcare could transfer property before the town could act. “We could wake up and find out it’s all been transferred somewhere else,” Hagan said. 

Tom Tavenner shared Hagan’s concern about ownership and by the end of the second meeting had offered to further investigate the property transfer from Dr. Gregory to St. Andrews Hospital. Tavenner said he had the original deed and it was a simple transfer with no restrictions. “I think there probably was a side agreement,” Tavenner said.

Lincoln County Healthcare’s Vice President of Physician Services Stacey Miller said, “Once you look at our financial statements it will be apparent who owns the hospital.” Miller said she was unaware of any other agreements or property transfers. She said that any donations made to St. Andrews that specified a particular use or location had been honored and that no equipment bought with auxiliary funds had been transferred to Miles Memorial Hospital.

Miller and Vice President of Hospital Operations Cindy Leavitt represented Lincoln County Healthcare at both meetings, answering several public questions in the first meeting and fewer in the second. “We know our community communication process was flawed,” Miller said in the first meeting. “We can’t take that back but we can make a good faith effort going forward.”

After the work groups were defined and the second meeting began to wind down, Margaret Perritt suggested that one work group get creative and “think pie in the sky.” “What could we put in those buildings that would make enough money to keep some beds open and the emergency room open and still be called a hospital?” Perritt asked, and then suggested possibilities, such as a plastic surgery or Lyme’s disease center.

“There are any number of things that are needed and would like to be in pretty little Boothbay Harbor and that we could tack our emergency room and hospital beds onto and make it financially viable,” Perritt said. 

The task force meets weekly at the Boothbay Town Office on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. It will hold its first meeting with Lincoln County Health Care administrators and board members to discuss the requested moratorium and other issues on September 5 in Boothbay.