Edie Konesni, PA

Starting in April, there is going to be a new face at the Arthur Jewell Community Health Center in Brooks.

Edie Konesni, PA-C, will be seeing patients on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Read more…

Waldo County General Hospital has a new nephrologist, who will be coming onboard fulltime.

Dr. Mark Vannorsdall, who is board certified in internal medicine and nephrology, will be working with dialysis patients at DCI and will also be seeing patients one or two days a week in Suite 118 at the hospital and occasionally at Pen Bay Medical Center.

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Kimberly Lenfestey

Getting a diagnosis of breast cancer is frightening enough. Add to that all the options for treatment there are now and the situation can become overwhelming for many people. Should I have surgery? If so, should it be breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) or a mastectomy? Should I have radiation? Chemotherapy? Or should I try a hormonal therapy? And what about all the alternative and complementary therapies, will they help my recovery?

At Waldo County General Hospital, anyone with a diagnosis of breast cancer and their family members can get help navigating through the maze of healthcare options.

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Barbara Crowley, RN, has been hired to head up Waldo County General Hospital’s virtual Learning Resource Center. In that role, she has already set up four community presentations for the next several weeks. -

Waldo County General Hospital has a new physician practice manager. Gerald E. Merrill III, better known as Trey, is responsible for overseeing the management of the hospital’s five health centers and hospital-owned practices. It’s a position he has been preparing for with both his education and work experience.  Read more…

Patients at Arthur Jewell Community Health Center in Brooks and Stockton Springs Regional Health Center have a new service available right at the health center. Kathy Muzzy LCSW, a therapist, has been seeing people there since late October.  Read more…

Waldo County General Hospital has been awarded a $50,000 grant for each of the next three years to help expand the 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go! program. It is a program championed by Dr. Tori Rogers of MaineHealth to help fight the epidemic of childhood obesity.

Mark Biscone, Executive Director of Waldo County General Hospital, receives a $50,000 check for the first year of a three-year grant from MaineHealth for the 5-2-1-0 program. Presenting the check is Deb Deatrick, Vice-President of Community Health for MaineHealth.

Over the past 30 years, the number of overweight children, ages 6 to 11, has nearly tripled. Rogers, who spoke Nov. 15 at the hospital’s annual Advisory Committee meeting, said approximately 30 percent of the children she sees in her pediatric practice in Saco are carrying extra weight. Statistics for Waldo County show that 36 percent of the students in RSU 20 are overweight or obese while that figure jumps to 47 percent in RSU 3. And for the first time, this generation is expected to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

5-2-1-0 stands for 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day; no more than 2 hours of recreational screen time; at least 1 hour of physical activity per day and 0 soda or sugary drinks. She said one of the most overlooked parts of these may be the 0 soda and sugary drinks. For example, a bottle of Mountain Dew contains 16 teaspoons of sugar and is significantly larger than it used to be. Many fruit “juices” have less than 5 percent juice and lots of sugar, while even 100 percent apple juice has nearly 7 teaspoons of sugar.  A raw apple has less than half of that, along with beneficial fiber.

The Let’s Go! portion of the program, which was piloted in the Portland area, also seeks to increase healthy eating and physical activity for youth and their families and works in six areas: healthcare, schools, after school, childcare, workplace and communities.

Dr. Rogers said the obesity epidemic got to this point through a number of factors, including:

• low-cost food has more calories;

• portion sizes have increased, such as the size of bagels;

• soda and sugary drink sizes have increased;

• working families are dining out more;

• time spent in front of the television and computers is up;

• there have been cuts to recess and physical activity time in schools; and

• many communities are not made for walking and more people are living in the country, out of walking distance of essential services.

Dr. Rogers said the epidemic is costing us billions economically, in increased healthcare costs and even in National Security. She said the number one reason applicants fail to qualify for the military is obesity.

Dr. Tori Rogers shows attendees at the annual meeting of the Community Advisory Committee how much sugar is in a bottle of Mountain Dew.

She said what works to help bring about change is focusing on prevention, creating walk-able communities, giving consistent messages about obesity, and policy changes—“small steps” that will add up, she said, adding, “We also need to stop rewarding people with food and incorporating physical activity into every day.” As of June 2010, she said 84,154 students in 263 schools and 38 childcare centers have been introduced to 5-2-1-0.

Among the changes that have been made at Waldo County General Hospital are removing soda and unhealthy snacks from the vending machines, offering fresh fruit and a salad bar at all meals, purchasing local foods to a practical extent and offering programs such as Journey to Health, which offers tips and classes to help community members get and stay healthy. Doctors at the hospital attended training on 5-2-1-0 last spring and a number of them committed to providing information about the program to their patients and family members.

While the 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go! program in this area has been focusing on children for the past couple of years, the current effort is to expand that to adults in workplaces and the community. To help with that, the hospital recently hired Hester Kohl as its 5-2-1-0 Coordinator.  Her primary responsibilities will be to oversee community health and wellness programs. Kohl, who is a health educator, plans to develop a list of community resources already in place to help with healthy eating and fun ways to exercise. She will also provide counseling and education, along with referral services, to encourage healthy choices.