Waldo County General Hospital (WCGH) has won another national award. VHA, Inc., a national health care network, honored 28 hospitals for meeting or exceeding national performance standards for clinical care and efforts to improve the patient experience.  Read more…

Cutting the ribbon for the new oncology suite are, from left, Dr. Betsy Connelly, oncologist; Lee Woodward, president of the hospital Board of Directors; Sue Drinkwater RN, manager of the oncology department;

Recently, the oncology clinic at Waldo County General Hospital held a ribbon-cutting and open house at its new suite. The space had previously been used by the dialysis unit, which has since moved into the first floor of the new building across the street from the hospital.

Sue Drinkwater RN, manager of the oncology department, said the Read more…

Dave Tassoni, Senior Vice President of Operations for athenahealth, presents Dan Bennett, Director of Operations at Waldo County General Hospital, with a $5,000 check for the 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go Waldo program. As part of the company’s goal Read more…

Imaging Department Manager Ann Hooper

Imaging Department Manager Ann Hooper has received the designation of Certified Breast Patient Navigator Read more…

As the Hutchinson Center in Belfast was preparing to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the staff decided they wanted to do something to show appreciation to all those who had supported it since its founding in 2000. It was decided to raise funds for the Oncology Patient Assistance and Mammography Fund at Waldo County General Hospital. Read more…

For years, Teri Blackadar, RN, worked in an emergency room in an inner city hospital. She knew she and other medical personnel weren’t doing the right things for those who came to the ER after being sexually assaulted—“But we had 50 other patients waiting and there wasn’t time. We could not take the time to handle the situation with the consideration we should have…I knew I wanted to do it differently.”

And now she is.  Blackadar is now a certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), along with Sue Young Dupler, RN, who was the first certified nurse to do a sexual assault examination in the state of Maine in 1998. Waldo County General Hospital now has four SANEs and a fifth is completing the training.

Among the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners at the hospital are, from left, Mary Ann Ordelt, Sue Dupler and Teri Blackadar

Dupler got her training in the first SANE class in Maine, which she completed in the summer of 1997. But for SANE nurses to be able to do pelvic examinations, a change was needed in the law, which only allowed doctors to do pelvic exams. Then ER Director John Gage, MD, and Rep. David Lindahl pushed through emergency legislation to change the law.

WCGH had two graduates in that first SANE training. When one of those left the hospital, another RN took the training. The program has never folded but there was less emphasis from 2005-2008 due to the lack of availability of examiners.

“We’re rebuilding the fire again,” said Dupler recently. “We have nurses who want to do it.”

Dupler, Blackadar and Mary Ann Ordelt, who is taking the training, want the message to be that the Emergency Room is “a safe place and a nonjudgmental place.”  In many cases, the person who has been sexually assaulted is afraid and ashamed, especially if there was alcohol or drugs involved.

But the SANE nurses say, “They have nothing to be ashamed of. They did their job by surviving. They are not victims; they are survivors.”

The exam can be done anonymously and the evidence will be held for 90 days with just a number attached unless the survivor decides to pursue criminal charges. The cost of the exam can be paid for from the state’s witness compensation fund. The SANE nurses do not work for law enforcement, although they can work with them and with prosecutors if criminal charges are brought.

The nurses also can offer referrals for survivors to receive services they might need for sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, tetanus, HIV, or Hepatitis B. But for many survivors what they need most is someone, who is willing to listen, and not pushing for details of the assault or being judgmental.

And contrary to public belief, a forensic exam can provide evidence up to two weeks after the assault and/or after the survivor has taken a shower.

The SANE nurses each carry a pager and when someone checks into the ER after being sexually assaulted, one is called in, along with an advocate (advocates are currently coming from the Augusta area and there is a need for some local people to take the training).  Dupler said the hospital probably averages 3 to 10 sexual assaults a year; although they have had three in the past two months.

The nurses are worried that there are many sexual assaults that are not reported, especially with the date rape drugs making an appearance in this area. They urge people who can only remember having one drink and then not remembering anything until the next day to realize they may have been drugged and to seek help.

“Don’t think ‘I may have been asking for it.’ Nobody deserves to be sexually assaulted. It doesn’t matter how you were behaving,” says Ordelt. “You don’t owe anyone anything.”

“Sexual assault is trauma and there are effects if you don’t deal with it. We will not leave you hanging or unsafe. We will not judge you and the exam will not be part of your medical file or you can refuse to have the exam. We will not report you to law enforcement. We will give you clean clothes to wear home and a shower and you will be in a safe place,” say the nurses.

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.