Dr. Mark Fourre, currently chief medical officer at LincolnHealth in Damariscotta and Boothbay Harbor, has been chosen by the Board of Trustees of Coastal Healthcare Alliance — which oversees Pen Bay Medical Center, Waldo County General Hospital and their community-based health care services — to take over as CEO at the end of the year, when Mark Biscone, the current CEO, is set to retire.

Thursday, October 20, 2016 9:50 AM

I believe the bulk of humanity works hard to be kind and genuine. It can be a struggle, but most of us try to be the best people we can be. That is not only a belief; it is also a personal choice. Believing the best in people . . .

Morning Rounds: Sometimes the Most Important Lessons Come from the Most Difficult Patients

Every emergency depart- ment has patients who doctors and nurses see on a regular basis and, often, we get to know them fairly well. When I first began working at the Maine Medical Center Emergency Department . . .
Morning Rounds: Sometimes It Is Better to Be Lucky Than Good

That statement is an acknow- ledgment that chance plays a role in everything we do, and that is true in medicine as well. Clinical outcomes, whether we like it or not, often depend on factors that physicians have little or . . .
Morning Rounds: Doctors Look for Solutions as Evidence of Opioid Long-Term Ineffectiveness for Chronic Pain Mounts

Dr. Alan Barker has begun to work with his patients who take narcotic medications for chronic pain to find better and safer ways to manage that pain. Patients who have been diagnosed with cancer. . .
Morning Rounds: Modern Medicine Faces Challenge of Keeping Patients Safe While Maintaining Patient — Physician Relationship

One thing I have become pretty committed to in my practice of emergency medicine is shaking hands when I walk into an exam room. Shaking hands is an important gesture in our . . .
Morning Rounds: Sometimes the Hardest Lessons Are the Ones You Learn When Nothing Works

A few years ago, during my first shift at Miles Memorial Hospital (now the Miles Campus of LincolnHealth), a very sick patient arrived by ambulance at about two in the morning.
Morning Rounds: It Takes More Than Medical School to Make a Good Physician

It is often said that one of the best ways to truly learn something is to teach it. In my role as director of the Maine Medical Center Emergency Medicine Residency Program, I came to believe that saying, and . . .
Morning Rounds: People with Mental Illness Need More Than Medications

Emergency physicians take a fair amount of pride in the fact that we never refuse medical care to any patient who shows up at our door. It doesn’t . . .
Morning Rounds: Police, Medical Providers and Mentally Ill Pay Price for Lack of Mental Health Care

After 30 years in practice, I am rarely spooked by a patient in the emergency department. But, a recent visit in a large urban emergency department . . .
Morning Rounds: Alcohol & Poor Judgment; A Source of Job Security for Emergency Physicians

When I was a medical student working in St. Paul, Minnesota, an 18-year-old kid arrived in the emergency department in the early morning hours with . . .
Morning Rounds: Buddy System Works on Mountains and in Emergency Departments

As in most professions, there are plenty of stereotypes about physicians. For emergency physicians, the stereotype is adrenalin junkie. . . .
Morning Rounds: Heroin

One of the easiest diagnoses to make in emergency medicine is of a patient who has overdosed on heroin: they are the ones who have pinpoint pupils . . .
Morning Rounds: Why You Shouldn't Go to Medical School, Unless You Have To

One of the more satisfying aspects of my career has been the opportunity to talk with many young people who are considering medical school. I always find it very hopeful that so many capable, intelligent, compassionate people are willing to make the sacrifices they will have to make to survive medical school . . .
Morning Rounds: Why I Hate "House"

I hate "House." I don't hate Hugh Laurie; he is a very talented actor. I just hate the doctor he plays on T.V. House is always the "best" doctor in the room, the doctor who knows best, the man with the answers. The problem with "House" the television show is that medicine has changed. There isn't room today for . . .
Morning Rounds: The One Sentence No Emergency Physician Wants to Hear

"Hey, remember that guy you saw last night?" That sentence strikes fear into every emergency physician. If something goes terribly wrong with a patient after you saw them, invariably a colleague has to break the news to you and that is how the story starts. "Hey Mark, remember that kid you saw last night . . ."
Morning Rounds: More Proactive Care Works Better and Costs Less

During one six-month period of time over the past two years, Buddy Pietila, a Nobleboro man with advanced liver disease, was hospitalized 13 times. The care he received saved his life, but the fact that Buddy needed to be hospitalized so often is a pretty strong indication that the medical system was not working for . . .
Morning Rounds: Family, Social Connections Can Play Critical Role in Health Care Decisions

For most physicians, most of the time, medical decisions are pretty clear-cut. If a patient is sick, we help them get well so they can have a better quality of life. But when our therapies are no longer enough, particularly at the end of life, the decisions become more difficult. That's when family and friends are most . . .
Morning Rounds: Vaccines Keep More than Schoolchildren Safe

Bristol Consolidated School Nurse Linda Cosgrove, RN, never imagined herself a school nurse until she accepted a temporary position at a school and discovered how much she liked working with children. The job she took comes with challenges very different from . . .
Morning Rounds: Caring for People Close to Home Improves Quality of Life

One of the biggest issues facing health care nationwide, especially in Maine where our population is much older than average, is geriatric psychiatry. As people age, they are increasingly likely to develop dementia. At 65, 11 percent of people have dementia. At 85, about a third of people have Alzheimer's disease . . .
Morning Rounds; The Ebola Virus Is Scary But That Doesn't Mean We Should Be Fearful

The Ebola virus scares me. How could it not? It is not highly contagious, but it is highly infectious, and it is fatal 25 to 90 percent of the time. Like everyone else, I read articles about Ebola in our local papers as well as newspapers like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Unlike most other people, I also spend a . . .
Morning Rounds: Real Medical Success Stories Are About Strong Relationships, Hard Work

For reasons that have a lot to do with shows like "ER," most people's idea of a medical success story involves a medical crisis, an emergency department and someone standing over a patient holding defibrillator paddles as a nearby monitor traces out the rhythm of a restarted heartbeat. The truth is, however . . .