A six-member physician group ended a decadeslong agreement to provide pediatric care services to newborn patients at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, according to the Bangor Daily News.
Three things to know:
1. Penobscot Pediatrics, also in Bangor, stopped sending its providers to check on patients at the hospital's newborn nursery in early February. Officials at the physician group told the Bangor Daily News the move was made so that physicians could provide outpatient services at the group's other area locations.
"There is a lot of demand for those services. Having the time that the pediatricians spend [visiting] normal, newborn babies in the nursery, having that time back can provide additional, really important access for the work that we're doing in the office. We'd like to be able to continue both — anybody would. But in a time of limited resources, it comes down to, in some ways, a value judgment of what has more impact on our population of people that we serve," an executive with the physician group's parent organization, Bangor-based Penobscot Community Health Care, told the publication.
2. Hospital officials told the publication they work with several physician groups who can provide newborn care, and that they do not plan to hire additional staff.
3. Leaders from both organizations told the Bangor Daily News they were disappointed the partnership had ended, but praise the cooperation between both organizations.
To access the full report, click here.