New COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Maine as inoculations begin at nursing homes
Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston received 60 vials of a new Moderna vaccine Monday morning, while The Cedars in Portland hosted its first vaccination clinic for residents and employees.
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Dianne Calder, a resident of The Cedars in Portland, was among the first nursing home residents in Maine to be vaccinated against COVID-19 on Monday. Calder moved to The Cedars shortly before the nursing home closed to visitors and enforced protocols to prevent the spread of the virus. Getting the vaccine gave her hope that she may soon be able to hug her daughter again and dine with other residents.
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Claire McDonough, pharmacy operations manager at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, unpacks some of the first doses of Moderna s COVID-19 vaccine to arrive on Maine on Monday. Photo courtesy of Central Maine Healthcare
The first shipments of a new COVID-19 vaccine started to arrive in Maine on Monday.
The vaccine was developed by Moderna and approved last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sixty vials containing a total of 600 doses arrived at Central Maine Medical Center shortly before 10 a.m., said Ann Kim, hospital spokeswoman.
Maine is expecting to receive 24,200 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week, as well as 4,875 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough to vaccinate 29,075 front-line health care workers.
MaineHealth hospitals earn grade of ‘A’
All five MaineHealth hospitals eligible for a grade from Leapfrog received the highest safety score offered
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STATE All five eligible MaineHealth hospitals – Franklin Memorial Hospital, Maine Medical Center, Mid Coast Hospital, Pen Bay Medical Center and Southern Maine Health Care – have received a fall 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade of ‘A,’ the highest hospital safety grade that Leapfrog offers.
Leapfrog assigns an ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘F’ grade to 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals across the country every six months. Grades are based on 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data. The peer-reviewed methodology evaluates a hospital’s performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care. Nationwide, 34 percent of hospitals received an ‘A’ grade this fall.
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PORTLAND The Leapfrog Group has named four MaineHealth hospitals LincolnHealth, Pen Bay Medical Center, Waldo County General Hospital and Stephens Memorial Hospital as Top Rural Hospitals 2020. Leapfrog’s Top Rural Hospital Awards recognize achievements in patient safety and quality.
“We could not be more proud of the care team at Stephens,” said Andrea Dodge Patstone, President of Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, Maine. “Receiving this elite Leapfrog designation in the same year that our team earned a 5-Star rating for patient experience from the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is truly amazing.”
The Leapfrog Group, an independent national quality evaluator, considered more than 2,200 hospitals from across the country for a Top Hospital Award. Of them, 105 were selected as Top Hospitals. The Top Rural Hospital Award went to just 19 hospitals, meaning MaineHealth hospitals make up more than 1/5 of the rural hospitals that were
By Staff
Pen Bay Medical Center opened a new 42,000-square-foot primary care health center this week on its Rockport campus.
The $16 million health center, which broke ground last year, was funded solely through a capital campaign called the Campaign for Coastal Health, according to a news release.
Philanthropic support included a $2 million gift from MaineHealth and a gift of $500,000 from the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. Major donations also came from local businesses, including the Allen Agency, Camden National Bank, CedarWorks, First National Bank, Horch Roofing, O’Hara Corp. and Viking Lumber.
Early foundation contributors included the Sunshine Lady Foundation, Libra Foundation, Davis Family Foundation, William Randolph Hearst Foundation and Fisher Foundation.