Central Maine Healthcare

Where You are the Center

Quality and Safety

Quality Ratings

Fast Facts

  • Quality care ratings are a simple, efficient way to measure the level of care a hospital provides.
  • Quality care ratings are also a way to better understand a hospital’s practice when it comes to patient safety.
  • Reviewing quality care ratings helps patients choose the best care for their healthcare goals and needs.

What It Means

Every day, the providers and staff at Central Maine Healthcare strive to deliver the highest quality care. That means caring for patients without exposing them to additional harm, such as medical errors or hospital-acquired infections. We measure our success through quality of care ratings from independent agencies. These ratings allow us to measure how effectively we administer patient care, how affordable care is to our patients and how we compare to other healthcare facilities on a local and national scale.

How Are We Doing?

Central Maine Healthcare participates in quality care ratings from the Maine Health Data Organization (MHDO), the Maine Quality Forum (MQF) and The Leapfrog Group. The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit that scores hospitals twice a year and offers grades from A–F based on patient safety, quality care, and cost of care. More than half of the country’s hospitals voluntarily provide data to the Leapfrog Group.

When these third parties review our organization, they look at our rates of errors, injuries, accidents and hospital-acquired infections as well as our processes in place to address those issues. The staff at CMH facilities have made concerted efforts to improve quality,  CMMC receives a Hospital Safety Grade from Leapfrog and Bridgton and Rumford hospitals both participate by submitting the Leapfrog survey but they are only eligible for Top Rural Hospital.

Patients are welcome to review our data which is published on the Compare Maine web site sponsored by MHDO and MHQ:

Constant Improvement

Under CEO Steve Littleson’s leadership, our facilities have used a combination of technology and strategic partnerships with other local healthcare providers to improve access to high-quality care while also lowering costs for patients. CMH has received national quality and safety accreditations in many fields, including advanced primary stroke, bariatric surgery and rehabilitation medicine.

Patient Experience

Fast Facts

  • Transparency about health care leads to higher patient satisfaction and increased trust. In turn, increased trust leads to increased compliance with discharge instructions and follow-up care — which leads to better patient outcomes.
  • Holding team members accountable ensures continuous improvement, and a culture of accountability increases staff satisfaction.
  • Patient experience improvement is a vital part of any organization that is serious about offering superior service.

What It Means

Patient satisfaction and patient experience are both important, but they are two different measurements at Central Maine Healthcare. Patient satisfaction focuses on whether a patient’s expectations about a health encounter were met. Patient experience seeks to understand from patients whether something that should happen in a healthcare setting actually happened — the range of interactions patients have across the continuum of the healthcare system, including care from providers, nurses, specialists and everyone else who works in our facilities.

At CMH, we select a random assortment of patients to complete Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys to help us gauge their experiences at CMH. The 32-item survey allows patients to rate everything from the temperature of their hospital room and the quality of their food to their communication with nurses and the amount of time providers spent with them.

How Are We Doing?

Data from our HCAHPS survey is submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services that administers the Medicare and Medicaid program. The survey data account for 25% of CMS’s formula for calculating value-based payment to hospitals. You can compare our results here:

Infection Prevention

Fast Facts

  • Healthcare facilities are places for patients to seek care to improve their health, not acquire an infection as a consequence of their hospital stay or procedure. Central Maine Healthcare follows the necessary protocols to provide a safe environment for staff, patients and visitors.
  • Infection prevention is promoted through education about hand hygiene, the importance of vaccinations and proper use of antibiotics.
  • Our infection prevention team provides support so staff can identify someone with an infectious disease and quickly institute precautions. Each CMH facility has dedicated rooms, disinfection supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) that help prevent the spread of disease.

What It Means

Infection prevention is the practice of identifying any risks of contamination and following set processes to prevent potential harm to staff, patients and visitors. The World Health Organization reports 1 in 10 patients acquire a healthcare-related infection. CMH infection prevention teams are trained to minimize the spread of infectious disease and are accessible to every department to serve as consultants to healthcare personnel.

At CMH, we follow a set of standardized ratings to determine whether patients meet the criteria for an infection during their hospital stays. We also use a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sponsored national database called the National Health Safety Network. The database calculates a number called a standardized infection ratio based on the type of hospital, risk of patient, number of patients cared for and other risk indicators. The publicly available number demonstrates how well our hospital compares with others locally and around the country.

We monitor all:

  • Bloodstream infections related to central lines
  • Clostridiodes difficile (C. diff) infections
  • Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) blood stream infections
  • Surgical site infections
  • Urinary tract infections related to indwelling catheters
  • Ventilator-associated events

How Are We Doing?

CMH reports infection prevention results to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for our three locations:

Not only do hospital ratings provide patients the opportunity to compare hospitals, but they also hold us accountable for continual improvement.

CMH includes infection prevention in its core education for all staff from initial hire to annual trainings. Our staff receives annual supplemental education on topics such as hand hygiene, PPE compliance, isolation precautions, specific disease processes, equipment disinfection and resistant microorganisms.

Constant Improvement

CMH strives to provide the highest quality patient care. Patients can trust their safety is our top concern. We have made it our goals to:

  • Reach 90% compliance in the area of hand hygiene
  • Institute initiatives to prevent surgical site infections for colon surgery patients
  • Keep staff updated about new and emerging information about COVID-19 and follow set policies to prevent spread of infection

Bringing Perspective to Infection Prevention

Joanne Kenny-Lynch, M.S., M(ASCP), CIC, system director of infection prevention, has been a practicing infection preventionist since 1992 and joined CMH in 2018. She helps oversee infection prevention at CMMC, Rumford Hospital, Bridgton Hospital, all CMH outpatient practice locations and Maine Urgent Care facilities. She also has a consultative role with Bolster Heights Residential Care and Rumford Community Home. She is proud to play a role in promoting infection prevention at CMH facilities.

“I’d like to say I have helped give my team a voice and shown how important infection prevention is,” Kenny-Lynch says. “Our team actively participates in all aspects of patient care, from room cleaning to providing guidance on new construction and renovations performed at the facilities. We play a part in every single department in our center, because in some way, everyone comes in contact with a patient. While we are not seen in the forefront as patient caregivers, the positive impact of our role in patient care at CMH is huge.”

Hospital Readmissions

Fast Facts

  • Hospital readmissions are associated with unfavorable patient outcomes.
  • The hospital readmissions metric encourages healthcare facilities to involve patients and families in discharge planning.
  • Reducing hospital readmissions saves tax dollars.

What It Means

A variety of factors can lead patients to be readmitted to the hospital days or weeks after discharge, including drug-related complications, a hospital-acquired infection, complications resulting from surgery, lack of education about a care plan or an inadequate support network that makes compliance with providers’ instructions difficult.

Hospital readmissions are costly. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issues penalties for hospital readmissions and offers incentives for hospitals to reduce them as part of its Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). CMS policies consider hospital readmission rates as a way to gauge quality of patient care. CMS defines a hospital readmission as an unplanned readmission that happens within 30 days of discharge from an initial admission. As part of the HRRP, CMS tracks hospital readmissions for heart attack, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure, pneumonia, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and elective total hip and total knee replacements.

CMS measures hospital quality in three categories: structural measures, process measures and outcome measures. Hospital readmissions are part of the outcome measures category. CMS obtains readmissions data from coded claims submitted by hospitals for payment, which makes them available on the Medicare Hospital Compare website.

Hospital readmissions cost the United States billions of dollars annually, which increases taxes for everyone. Lowering readmissions can decrease healthcare costs and increase quality of care and patient satisfaction.

 How Are We Doing?

Central Maine Healthcare’s hospital readmissions data can be found on the CMS website. CMS obtains readmission data from coded claims submitted by hospitals for payment.  See how we’re doing by checking out the numbers for:

Constant Improvement

At CMH, our goal is to reduce hospital readmissions to less than 10%. A recent data analysis found that congestive heart failure, COPD and diabetes are our top readmission diagnoses. That led us to prioritize several steps to decrease readmissions, including increasing targeted patient education, setting up clinical pathways to produce more successful hospital stays and increasing family involvement in discharge planning and education. We’re developing clinical pathways focused on diagnosis, patient education, nutrition and the importance of follow-up treatment. We’re also exploring the possibility of developing clinics to encourage follow-up visits within 72 hours of discharge.

Bringing Perspective to Hospital Readmissions: Care Management

Some hospital readmissions are avoidable, and others aren’t. To increase patient satisfaction, CMH and our communities must work as a team to ensure patients leave the hospital understanding their instructions for continuing care at home. Educating the community about the importance of avoiding readmissions is important to decrease healthcare costs for all.

We have an amazing team of case managers that includes nurses and social workers. We support this team in safely discharging patients to the next level of care by identifying challenges to success early in the hospital stay and finding solutions. The team helps patients avoid readmission by ensuring they have the support they need upon discharge. This could be home health services, admission to a skilled nursing facility or outside support systems.

Our philosophy is to treat others as we would want to be treated. Meeting patients at their level helps us understand their needs and support a safe discharge plan. Our job is rewarding because we break down barriers for patients.

Core Measures

Fast Facts

  • Core measures promote evidence-based patient care.
  • Core measures help ensure patients receive care that will lead to better outcomes.
  • Core measure compliance results enable patients and their families to make informed decisions about where they receive care.

What It Means

Core measures are national standards of care for common conditions. These standards are based on research, reduce patient complications and improve outcomes. Learning a hospital’s core measure compliance helps patients understand how their hospital compares to its competitors. Core measure compliance shows how often a hospital provides the recommended treatment for these common conditions — hospitals with higher compliance often produce better patient outcomes.

Core measures focus on four sets of criteria:

  • Research — providing patient care supported by strong scientific evidence
  • Proximity — offering care with few “pit stops” between diagnosis and improved patient outcomes
  • Accuracy — measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of care to help make positive outcomes more likely
  • Adverse effects — reducing or eliminating the potential for negative side effects during care delivery

How Are We Doing?

Each of our hospitals reports our core measure compliance to The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and we make our results available to the public:

Constant Improvement

Central Maine Healthcare has worked to improve core measure performance in several areas with remarkable results. Most recently, CMMC, Bridgton Hospital and Rumford Hospital have created multidisciplinary stroke and sepsis teams that include providers, nurses, pharmacists and more. The sepsis team has followed the recommendations of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign, a global initiative to reduce mortality related to sepsis — a life-threatening reaction to infection. Compliance percentages for the core measures for sepsis care have steadily increased since 2015. CMMC ranks at 77%, Bridgton Hospital at 87%, and Rumford Hospital at 66%. For comparison, the average score in the state of Maine is 62%, and the national average is only 59%.

Q&A With System Director of Rehabilitative and Orthopedic Services, Elizabeth Turcotte, MSN, RN-BC, ONC

Improving core measures in the treatment of stroke has been one area that CMH has made a priority. Our multidisciplinary stroke team regularly reviews scientific literature to identify and implement best practices in treating stroke quickly while also reviewing every case to determine if processes need to change.

“As stroke coordinator, I ensure that our team implements and follows the most up-to-date standards of stroke care,” says. Elizabeth Turcotte, MSN, RN-BC, ONC “Core measures ensure we provide the highest quality of care to promote positive outcomes. They provide a cohesive framework based on national recommendations, providing clear guidance and unifying patient care.”

Core measures also ensure consistency with medication, imaging, treatment and follow up, Turcotte adds.

“My goal is to ensure our Stroke Program functions at an optimal level,” she says.  “I work with staff, outlying providers, patients and the community to provide education, quality improvement and resources for this potentially debilitating condition.”

Quality & Safety

Vision for Quality

Delivering high-quality healthcare services is fundamental to everything we do at Central Maine Healthcare.

CMH is committed to providing the highest quality care to everyone we serve. How do we do this? By constant interaction with our patients and by monitoring, measuring, and evaluating everything we do. It’s always been our mission to deliver the best care available to our communities.

Quality Measures

Central Maine Healthcare closely monitors quality measures to ensure that its healthcare services not only meet quality standards but also continue to improve and even exceed expectations.

Patient Satisfaction

At Central Maine Healthcare, we not only measure the quality of the clinical services we provide, but we also survey patients to learn how they view their experiences throughout our system. The surveys are comprehensive; the detailed feedback is used to improve services.

Non-Discrimination Notice

In compliance with Section 1557 and other federal civil rights laws, we provide individuals the following in a timely manner and free of charge:
• Language assistance services. CMH will provide language assistance services for individuals with limited English proficiency (including individuals’ companions with limited English proficiency) to ensure meaningful access to our programs, activities, services, and other benefits. Language assistance services may include:
o Electronic and/or written translated documents
o Qualified interpreters
• Appropriate auxiliary aids and services. CMH will provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services for individuals with disabilities (including individuals’ companions with disabilities) to ensure effective communication. Appropriate auxiliary aids and services may include:
o Qualified interpreters, including American Sign Language interpreters
o Video remote interpreting
o Information in alternate formats (including but not limited to large print, recorded audio, and accessible electronic formats)
o Qualified readers
• Reasonable modifications. CMH will provide reasonable modifications for qualified individuals with disabilities, (including individuals’ companions with limited English proficiency) when necessary to ensure accessibility and equal opportunity to participate in our programs, activities, services, or other benefits.

To access services for language assistance, auxiliary aids, and/or to obtain reasonable modifications, please ask a CMH team member for assistance.

For additional assistance, you may contact the Section 1557 Coordinator at 207-795-2906 or by mail to 300 Main St., Lewiston, ME 04240.

If you believe CMH has failed to provide these services or has discriminated in another way based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability call the Patient Relations/Compliance Hotline at 207-795-2895 or 207-795-2906.

You may also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights:
• Electronically: https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/smartscreen/main.jsf
• Via mail: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. – 509F Washington, D.C. 20201

Nondiscrimination NoticeDownload
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Privacy Practices Notice

 Effective date:  November 18, 2024

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

CMH makes available language assistance services and auxiliary aids. CMH will provide you with a copy of this notice in your primary language upon request.

All Central Maine Healthcare (CMH) hospitals, service delivery sites, physician practices, long term care facilities, healthcare workers and staff will use and disclose personal medical information about you in accordance with this Privacy Practices Notice (Notice).

CMH is committed to protecting the confidentiality of your medical information, and are required by law to do so. This Notice describes how we may use your medical information and how we may disclose it to others. The Notice also describes the rights you have concerning your own medical information. Please review it carefully and let us know if you have questions. We will ask you to sign a form acknowledging that you received this Notice.

We regard the safeguarding of your personal identifiable information as an important duty. The elements of this notice and the consents and/or authorizations you sign are required by state and federal law for your protection. We have in place safeguards to protect the privacy of your information. Our staff is regularly trained on the obligation to protect the privacy of our patients. We hold medical records in a secure area. Only staff members that have a “need to know” are permitted access to your medical records or other information. Our staff understands the legal and ethical obligation to protect your information. A violation of this Notice of Privacy Practices will result in disciplinary action.

HOW WILL WE USE YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION AND SHARE IT WITH OTHERS?

Treatment: We may use your medical information to provide you with medical services and supplies. We may also share your medical information with others who need to treat you. This includes; doctors, physician assistants, nurses, medical and nursing students, technicians, therapists, emergency service and medical transportation providers, medical equipment providers, medical imaging technologists, and others involved in your care. For example, we will allow your physician to have access to your medical record to assist in your treatment and for follow-up care. We will use and share your medical records in an emergency to ensure you receive the necessary medical services.

HealthInfoNet (HIN): We participate in a state-wide arrangement of healthcare organizations who have agreed to work with each other to make available electronic health information that may be relevant to your care. This is called HealthInfoNet (HIN) and allows Maine hospitals, doctors and other health care providers to quickly share certain health information about their patients. For example, if you are admitted to a hospital participating in HealthInfoNet on an emergency basis and cannot provide important information about your health condition, this arrangement will help those who need to treat you at the hospital to see your health information held by another participating provider. When it is needed, ready access to your health information means better care for you.

You may choose to not make your protected health information available to this state-wide arrangement by completing an “opt-out” election form available online, or from your provider’s office. Upon request, CMH will submit the opt-out form to HealthInfoNet for you, at 60 Pineland Drive, Auburn Hall, Suite 305 New Gloucester, ME 04260. For further information you can visit their website at www.hinfonet.org or give them a call at (207) 541-9250 or 1-866-592-4352.

Patient Directory: To help family members and visitors locate you while you are in the Hospital, the Hospital has a patient directory. This directory includes your name, your general condition, where you are in the Hospital, and religion (if any) to be given to the clergy. This information is only given out to those who ask for you by name. You have the option, at registration, to limit who has access to this information.

You, Your Family Members and Others Involved in Your Care: We may share your medical information with you. We may also share your medical information with a family member or friend who is involved in your medical care or someone who is involved in payment for your care. For example, when a patient is not present or without capacity, we may allow a third party to pick up prescriptions, supplies, or x-rays. We also may share your medical information with disaster relief organizations to help locate a family member or friend in a disaster. You have a right to request that we do not share your medical information with one (or more) family members or friends. Please let us know if this is your wish.

Decedent Information: Surviving family members or other persons involved in your care will have continued access to your personal medical information, unless you previously expressed preferences to the contrary. We may also share your personal medical information with the executor, administrator, or other person who has authority to act on behalf of your estate. Otherwise you will be protected by these privacy rules for a period of 50 years following the date of death.

Payment: We may use and share your medical information to get paid for the medical services and supplies we provide to you. For example, we may submit claims to your health plan or health insurance company and it may ask to see parts of your medical record (chart) before they will pay us for your treatment.

Health Care Operations: We may use and share your medical information if it is necessary to improve the quality of care we provide to patients or to run the facility. We may use your medical information to look for ways to improve your care. For example, we may look at your medical record (chart) to evaluate whether staff, your doctors, or other health care professionals did a good job.

Research: We may use or share your medical information for research projects, such as studying how well a type of treatment worked. These research projects must go through a special process that protects the confidentiality (privacy) of your medical information. We are prohibited from using or disclosing your genetic information for underwriting purposes.

Required by Law: Federal, state, or local laws sometimes require us to share patients’ medical information. For instance, we are required to report child abuse or neglect and must provide certain information to law enforcement officials in domestic violence cases. We also are required to give information to the State Workers’ Compensation Program for work-related injuries.

Public Health: We may report certain medical information for public health purposes. We may need to report patient problems with medications or medical products to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or notify patients of recalls of products they are using. In some circumstances we may need to notify schools of immunization records and once received by the school they are protected by another set of privacy guidelines.

Public Safety: We may share medical information for public safety purposes in limited circumstances. We may share medical information to law enforcement officials in response to a search warrant or a grand jury subpoena. We may share medical information to assist law enforcement officials in identifying or locating a person. To prosecute a crime of violence, to report deaths that may have resulted from criminal conduct, and to report criminal conduct at the facility. We may share your medical information to law enforcement officials and others to prevent a serious threat to health or safety.

Health Oversight Activities: We may share medical information with a government agency that oversees the Facility or its staff, such as the State Department of Health & Human Services, the federal agencies that oversee Medicare, the Board of Medical Examiners or the Board of Nursing. These agencies need medical information to watch how well we follow state and federal laws.

Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors: We may share medical information concerning patients who have died to coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors.

Organ, Eye, or Tissue Donation. We may share medical information with groups that handle organ, eye or tissue donation or transplantation.

Military, Veterans, National Security and Other Government Purposes: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release your medical information as required by military command authorities or to the Department of Veterans Affairs. We may share medical information to federal officials for intelligence and national security purposes, or for presidential Protective Services.

Judicial Proceedings: We may share medical information if a court orders us to, if we receive a search warrant, or a subpoena.

Information with Additional Protection: Certain types of medical information have additional protection under state or federal law. For instance, medical information about HIV/AIDS, mental health, and alcohol and drug abuse treatment has more protection in Maine. We are required in many circumstances to get your permission before sharing this information. We will not use or disclose information to conduct or impose criminal, civil, or administrative investigation into any person for the mere act of seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care. We will not use or disclose information potentially related to reproductive health care for health oversight activities, for judicial or administrative proceedings, or to law enforcement, or coroners/medical examiners without a signed attestation. For example, any law enforcement request for records which contain information related to reproductive health must be accompanied by or include an attestation, under criminal penalty, that law enforcement are not seeking the records to investigate or impose criminal, civil, or administrative liability on any person for the mere act of seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care.

Fundraising. We may use your personal information (or share it with a related foundation) to contact you for fundraising purposes. You have the right to opt-out of such communications. You may opt-out of any fundraising communications by contacting the appropriate Privacy Contact listed at the end of this notice.

Other Uses and Disclosures: If we wish to use or share your medical information for a reason that is not discussed in this Notice, we must have your written permission. You may give us written permission to use your medical information or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose. If you give us written permission, you may revoke it at any time by notifying us of your revocation in writing. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosure permitted by your permission while it was in effect. We need your written permission to use or disclose psychotherapy notes, except in limited circumstances such as when the disclosure is required by law. We also must obtain your written permission to sell information about you to a third party or, in most circumstances, to use or disclose your medical information to send you communications about products and services. We do not need your written permission, however, to send you communications about health-related products or services that are offered by us.

Redisclosure Outside of CMH: Information disclosed pursuant to the Privacy Rule may be subject to redisclosure and no longer protected by the Privacy Rule. For example, information we share at your request may not obligate the individual who received the information to protect that information.

WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS?

Right to Request Your Medical Information: You have the right to look at your own medical information and to get a copy. (The law requires us to keep the original record.) This includes your medical record, your billing record, and other medical records we use to make decisions about your care. To request a copy of your medical information, write to Health Information Management. We will respond to your request as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days from the date of your request. When you request a copy of your information, we will tell you then how much the copy will cost. You can look at your record at no cost. You also have the right to your medical records in an electronic format that is suitable to you at cost.

You do not have the right to access (or receive a copy of) psychotherapy notes or information gathered in reasonable anticipation of a civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding. Your right of access may be limited if providing this information could endanger the health or safety of yourself or others.

Right to Request Changes to your Medical Information: If you look at your medical information and believe that some of the information is wrong or incomplete, you may submit a request to fix or amend your record. To request a change, write to Health Information Management. We will respond as soon as possible, but no later than 60 days from the date of your request. If we deny your request, you have the right to submit a written statement of reasonable length disagreeing with the denial which will be added to your record. We then have the right to send a rebuttal statement.

Right to Get a List of Certain Disclosures of Your Medical Information: You have the right to request a list of many of the disclosures we make of your medical information. This list does not include information used for treatment, payment, health care operations or any information released with your permission. If you would like to get a copy of the list, write to Health Information Management. We will respond as soon as possible, but no later than 60 days from the date of request. We will provide the first list to you free, but we may charge you for any additional lists you request during the same year. We will tell you in advance what this list will cost.

Right to Request Restrictions on How We Will Use or Share Your Medical Information for Treatment, Payment, or Health Care Operations: You have the right to request us not to share your medical information for your treatment, payment for care, or to operate the facility. We are required to agree to such requests if the disclosure of information is to a health plan regarding payment or health care operations and the protected health information relates to an item or service that has been paid for out of pocket in full to the provider AND the disclosure is not required by law. We are not required to agree to your requests that do not match these criteria, but if we do agree, we will comply with that agreement. If you want to make a request that we not share your information, you must make this request in writing to Health Information Management and describe your request in detail.

Right to Request Private Communications: You have the right to ask us to communicate with you in a way that you feel is more private. For example, you can ask us not to call your home, but to contact you only by mail. To do this, you must make this request in writing of the office at which you receive your care.

Right to a Paper Copy: You have the right to a paper copy of this Notice at any time. You may download and print a copy of the notice from our Web site, at www.cmhc.org or you may obtain a paper copy of the notice at any CMH Office.

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE

From time to time, we may change our practices concerning how we use or share patient medical information, or how we will protect patient rights concerning their information. We reserve the right to change this Notice and to make the provisions in our new Notice effective for all medical information we maintain. If we change these practices, we will publish a revised Notice of Privacy Practices. You can get a copy of our current notice of Privacy Practices at any time by stopping in any of CMH locations or from the website.

WHICH HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS ARE COVERED BY THIS NOTICE?

This Notice describes the privacy practices of CMH and our affiliated organizations which include the organizations that make up the CMH Affiliated Covered Entity (“ACE”) and the organizations and health professionals participating in an organized healthcare arrangement (OHCA) with CMH ACE entities.

The CMH ACE is comprised of covered entities under the common ownership or control of CMH System. CMH ACE includes:

  • Central Maine Medical Center
  • Bridgton Hospital
  • Rumford Hospital
  • Central Maine Health Ventures
  • Central Maine ACO

An OHCA is an arrangement that allows CMH entities to share health information about our patients to promote the joint operations of the participating entities. The OHCA entities share health information with each other for the treatment, payment and healthcare operations of the OHCA. OHCA participants include:

  • CMH ACE entities
  • Affiliated medical groups, professional corporations, independent physicians and allied health professionals contracting with CMH ACE entities to provide services at CMH facilities, unless such healthcare providers give you their own notice of privacy practices that describes how they will protect your medical information. Which include but are not limited to:
    • Andwell Health Partners
    • BlueWater Health of Lewiston, LLC
    • Sevaro Health Inc.
    • X-Ray, P.A.
    • New England Cancer Specialists
    • Shields Imaging
    • LifePoint Rehabilitation, LLC
    • Spurwink Services, Inc.

The Notice also applies to other health care providers that come to our facility to care for patients, such as physicians, physician assistants, therapists, and other health care providers who are not employed by us, unless these other health care providers give you their own Notice that describes how they will protect your medical information. We may share your medical information with these providers for treatment purposes, payment and health care operations. This arrangement is solely for sharing information and not for any other purpose.

DO YOU HAVE CONCERNS OR COMPLAINTS?

Please tell us about any problems or concerns you have with your privacy rights or how we use or share your medical information. If you have a concern, please contact the Compliance & Patient Relations Hotline (207) 795- 2398.

If for some reason we cannot resolve your concern, you may also file a complaint with the federal government at New England Region – Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Government Center J.F. Kennedy Federal Building – Room 1875, Boston, MA 02203; Customer Response Center: (800) 368-1019 or TDD: (800) 537-7697, Email: ocrmail@hhs.gov. We will not penalize you or retaliate against you in any way for filing a complaint with the federal government. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS?

We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your medical information, to give you this Notice, and to notify you if your unsecured personal health information is breached. It is also our responsibility to follow the terms of the Notice that is currently in effect. If you have any questions about this Notice, or have further questions about how we may use and share your medical information, please contact the Compliance and Patient Relations Hotline for Central Maine Healthcare at the number listed, or your local practice or department.

Central Maine Healthcare Corporation Privacy Contact Phone Numbers

Bridgton Hospital 10 Hospital Drive Bridgton, Maine 04009
Central Maine Medical Center 300 Main Street Lewiston, Maine 04240
Rumford Hospital 420 Franklin Street Rumford, Maine 04276
CMH Confidential Compliance & Patient Relations Hotline (207) 795-2398
Privacy Officer (207) 777-8025

Notice of Privacy Practices – EnglishDownload
Notice of Privacy Practices – FrenchDownload
Notice of Privacy Practices – SpanishDownload
Notice of Privacy Practices – Somali Download