The Boothbay Region Health Center is pleased to announce the promotion of Robyn Ham to clinical care manager, a new position within the organization designed to streamline end-to-end patient care. Robyn has been serving as a health coordinator/medical assistant since early 2018. She has been instrumental in helping to identify patient-impacting processes that need to be streamlined. The Health Center traffic reached an all time high in August with over 600 patient visits, and thanks, in part to our commitment to diagnose and treat tick-borne diseases for patients with and without health insurance, our phones have been ringing off the hook.

BRHC board secretary/treasurer, Liz Lussier, said, “Robyn has demonstrated her leadership abilities and her initiative in her tenure as a health coordinator/medical assistant in our practice. Now we'd like her to lead the clinical team in designing more streamlined processes, and an even better patient experience, while adhering to the highest medical and safety standards.” The board also feels that Robyn's work as an EMT with Boothbay Region Ambulance Service and as a tech at LincolnHealth's St. Andrews' Urgent Care over the past eight years makes her uniquely qualified to serve in this role.

Robyn is a graduate of Boothbay Region High School. The Boothbay Region Health Center tries to hire local talent whenever possible, and is currently seeking to fill an additional Health coordinator/medical assistant position. Interested applicants should send their resumes to Info@bbrhc.org. Medical experience is useful, but not required. We will train on the job and pay for appropriate medical certifications. We are also hiring a medical office manager, as well as recruiting additional medical providers.

Cunningham joins board

Chuck Cunningham has recently joined the board of directors of the Boothbay Region Health Center. Chuck is well-known to local residents as a recent and long-time member of the Boothbay Board of Selectman (past vice chairman, past chairman). He is a current trustee of the Boothbay Region Refuse Disposal District (past vice chairman, past chairman, current vice chairman). He is the co-chair of the Boothbay Comprehensive Planning Committee, and serves as the vice chairman of the Boothbay Planning Board. Chuck was the chairman of the St. Andrews Task Force. He is the evening operations manager at Hannaford and owner of a local farm, which sells fresh produce. We are pleased to welcome Chuck to our board. He joins other board members, Stephanie Hawke, John Webster, Chris Taylor, Liz Lussier, Nancy Spinney, Maureen Kinsey, Patty Seybold, Joyce Sirois, Sharon Migliozzi and Paula Jackson-Jones. The Health Center Board is recruiting new members, in particular, we are looking for people with backgrounds in family medicine.

Ticks

Ticks are once again active, due to the increased rainfall. So please wear repellent and check yourself carefully after you've been outdoors walking or doing yard clean up. And don't have your kids jump in leaf piles--they are prime targets for ticks to lay their eggs.

The co-infections that are often found along with Lyme (or instead of Lyme) are on the rise. According to the Portland Press Herald, the Maine CDC “had recorded 556 cases of Anaplasmosis and 124 cases of Babesiosis through Oct. 1. The number of Babesiosis cases already is a record, while Anaplasmosis is tracking to finish 2019 with more cases than the previous high of 663 in 2017.” This is in addition to the number of Lyme disease cases (684) reported in the same period.

The Boothbay Region Health Center continues to treat tick-borne disease patients, but, due to the huge influx of patients we've received from all over the state and even out of state, we are not accepting new tick-borne disease patients at this time, unless you have just had a recent tick bite. For people who have had symptoms for a while and are concerned and want a diagnosis and treatment, your best bet for the time being is to contact the Midcoast Lyme Disease Support and Education group (info@mldse.org) who will tell you who in the state is currently accepting patients.

Advisory Group

We had a very successful community dinner on Sept. 17. Over 35 people have signed up to help out as volunteers --- each doing one small task or activity to help the Health Center. The first planning meeting for this new Advisory Group will take place at the Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 29 from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m.. Anyone is welcome to attend and learn how you can lend a hand to support your community's health center.