Central Maine Health partnership extends heart care to rural areas

Courtesy / CMMC Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston

Write a Comment

By Staff

Central Maine Healthcare has partnered with DFD Russell Medical Centers, a Leeds-based nonprofit, to expand access to cardiovascular care in rural central Maine.

The program, which launches next month, will allow physicians from CMH's Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute to see patients at DFD Russell’s health center in Leeds, an Androscoggin County town east of Lewiston.

Instead of having to travel long distances, patients of DFD Russell will be able to see heart specialists at the center, at lower costs and on a more convenient schedule, CMH said in a news release. Diagnostic services will initially include electrocardiograms, echocardiograms and stress testing.

"The addition of cardiac specialty services to patients on a sliding fee scale furthers our mission to provide the highest quality of care to patients in our region," said DFD Russell CEO Laurie Kane-Lewis.

DFD Russell has health centers in Leeds, Turner and Monmouth and has 8,000 patients from 13 towns in Androscoggin and Kennebec counties. It has been recognized by the Health Resources and Service Administration as a Health Center Leader — among the top 10% of all health centers — and a National Quality Leader for Cardiovascular and Diabetes Health, Kane-Lewis said.

Doctors will see patients in Leeds once a month, increasing clinic days as demand increases, CMHVI officials said. Patients who require a more complex level of care will be referred to CMHVI.

The partnership with DFD Russell, which was founded 43 years ago, is one of several alliances undertaken by Central Maine Healthcare as it pursues its strategic mission of increasing health care access to all Mainers, the release said.

“Serving patients with the most accessible, highest quality of care is what we do,” said Andrew Eisenhauer, medical director of CMHVI. “And in our rural state, with our aging population, it makes sense to bring that care closer to Mainers whenever we can. This new partnership allows us to do that and we’re delighted to work with DFD Russell in this way.”

All appointments and billing will be handled directly through DFD Russell, allowing patients to schedule and manage their cardiovascular services where they receive their primary care, Kane-Lewis said.

The heart and vascular institute, which is on CMH's Lewiston campus, was rated one of the top 50 cardiovascular hospitals in the United States by IBM/Watson Health earlier this year. It's one of three health centers in the state to offer cardiac MRI — the other two are Maine Heart Center at Maine Medical Center in Portland, and Cardiac Wellness of Maine at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Last year, the institute was the only hospital in Maine and one of only two in New England to participate in a national study of TAVR, a life-saving valve replacement surgery.

About DFD Russell Medical Centers

In 1975, residents of Leeds and surrounding towns started DFD Russell Medical Centers as an independent public/private partnership following the death of the area’s only physician, Daniel Davis Russell. Opening in 1979, DFD is now a nonprofit federally qualified health center. It is a nationally recognized patient-centered medical home and has offices in Leeds, Turner and Monmouth. It also offers primary care services to residents of Sumner, Hartford, Canton, Buckfield, Livermore, Wayne, Greene, Wales, Sabattus and Litchfield.