By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

Bridgton Hospital has a new leader.

In March, Lucretia Stargell settled into the president’s office and held several “Meet and Greet” sessions with staff and area business people.

But, an unexpected decision surfaced.

Stargell, whose family is in North Carolina, resigned on May 4.

“She was not able to commit to being here full-time,” said Jim Cyr, System Director, Corporate Communications at Central Maine Healthcare. “We need someone who can commit to be here full time.”

When previous president Peter Wright resigned, Steve Littleson, president and CEO of Central Maine Healthcare, served as interim president for both Bridgton and Rumford Hospitals for nearly four months.

This time, CMH looked closer to home to find an interim replacement, selecting Stephany Jacques of Dixfield, who has been a longtime employee at Rumford Hospital and has also spent time at Bridgton Hospital.

There is no official timeline regarding naming a new president, Cyr noted.

“Potentially down the road, I would consider myself a candidate,” said Jacques when asked if she is interested in seeking the president position. “We’ll see how things play out at this point.”

Jacques previously was Vice President of Nursing and Patient Care Services at Rumford Hospital.

Just 20 days into the new job, Jacques and The News sat down for an interview regarding her past experience, her impressions of Bridgton Hospital, some of the challenges she will tackle in the months ahead, and what direction is BH heading in regarding medical personnel and services.

BN. Tell us about your previous work experience and thoughts about Bridgton Hospital?

SJ. About four years ago, I served as the regional director of primary care and specialty care here in Bridgeton and Rumford as well. I felt an instant connection with the team. I think it’s because the communities are very similar in that I think a lot of our team members come from our communities. So, we really want to do well by the people that we are caring for, because these are also our friends and family in the community. I think that was my instant attachment to Bridgton, it is a lot like Rumford. I think as far as my management experience goes, I have always loved my job in healthcare. One of the reasons that I kind of followed that management path, even though I originally started out in nursing school, is I hope to have everybody love their job as much as I do. I think part of that is taking down barriers for team members so that they can care for their patients and feel supported.

BN. How/why did you become interested in the medical field?

SJ. I was very close to my grandparents. So, when my grandfather got sick, I decided that I wanted to be able to take care of my family. It has served me well. You never know where the path is going to bring you, but a few years after starting in oncology, unfortunately, my father fell ill to kidney cancer and passed away. But it was such an honor and a privilege to be able to take care of him at home. I just think I’m so lucky to be a nurse and to be able to care for people, especially family and friends in the community. That’s really important to me.

BN. What experiences do you feel that you have previously had here that will help you in this new role?

SJ. I do have some connections to the community already, which I think is helpful, especially in now trying to reconnect with people. So, I think that that’s helpful. A lot of the team members that were here previously are still here, which I think says a lot for the hospital too. People are very dedicated. I think that those are definitely some strong suits for me. I was here during some of that primary care turnover, so I’ve seen it come around full circle. Although we’re still building and growing, I remember where we started from. Everybody is still fully committed and very passionate about what they do here. It feels like that helps to make for a good start.

BN. How does one approach trying to serve two hospitals, which are many miles apart from each other?

SJ. I think first and foremost, trust and to rely on the teams to help support me. I think too, in this role, I fully feel that Steve (Littleson) is committed to having me just solely be in Bridgton and Rumford. I think that that’s huge because it’s enough. Where I live, it’s pretty close to in between the two hospitals, which is helpful to me. I think a lot of it comes down to teamwork and open communication.

BN. Will you have set days at each facility?

SJ. I’d really like to prioritize it by what’s going on — obviously try to divide my time 50-50, but not necessarily set days because I don’t want to miss out on community events that are happening here. I don’t want to miss out on things that are happening that are important to Rumford and of course anything that’s going on within the hospital. I’ll try to look ahead and just see, okay, what’s going on next week and always be ready for change at the last minute because you never know what might come up.

BN. What do you see as the major challenges ahead of you?

SJ. I think for me, it’s the pressure I put on myself. I really want to get to know the team members here in Bridgton. I pretty much know everybody in Rumford (I grew up in the Rumford area so I know a lot of people there) and I want to get out in front of the community here. So, like a couple weeks ago, I think it was Day 2 on the job, we (Bridgton Hospital) were lucky enough to have collaborated with Lake Region Recovery to hold a mental health awareness walk, which I and other hospital staff took part in. That’s the best way to build trust quickly, to just get out and talk with community members. It takes time to build trust, and I’m committed to putting that time in.

BN. Any real change you’ve seen from the time you spent here before and what you’ve seen over the past three weeks as interim president?

SJ. I think just the commitment from the team and how much they truly care about how they’re perceived by the community, as well. Mm-Hmm. One thing that I think seems to be more evident now than before is everybody’s wanting to be a part of partnering with the community. I don’t know if I remember seeing that as much a few years ago, but now I think it feels like people have this feeling of needing to come together and work together to help care for the community. I don’t know if that’s something that transpired over the pandemic. What has really stood out to me is that people have a lot of pride in what they do here and, and they want to be recognized for that.

BN. There is major concern regarding access to care, from finding a primary care physician to undergoing treatment here, not having to travel to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. What direction is Bridgton Hospital headed in?

SJ. So, part of Central Maine’s strategic plan is to really, truly invest and grow in both Rumford and Bridgton Hospitals. We’re really looking into growing our GI clinics. We have a huge need for cardiology, so we’re looking at expanding our cardiology services. I know that primary care access is challenging, it’s a nationwide trend right now. We have two new physicians who’ve started in Naples. I think they are both amazing. They actually went through our residency program. It’s going to take a little bit of time to get them up to speed, be able to accept new patients and take on a higher load of patients. I think you’ll see over the next few months that access will start to open up. We are also getting a new nurse practitioner at Fryeburg Family Medicine, so that’ll make a full complement of providers up there. I know everyone utilizes the North Bridgton walk-in clinic too, which has been a huge help. If we can just make people feel comfortable to reach out, to ask questions, to know that we’re available to give any updates we can on new providers coming in and what’s happening to, to please do so. We’ll do our best to communicate out new providers coming in and new services happening because recruitment does take a little bit of time. And then getting people built up and trained to where they need to be to provide our best quality and safest care, it takes a little bit of time. It’s very difficult to recruit to any of the hospitals. It truly is a nationwide issue.

We have a large shortage of nurses, that’s no secret. I think one of the strategies that Steve (Littleson) has taken with his team is that team members have to come first. I think he’s done a lot of work investing in our team members, making sure that we have tuition reimbursement for team members who are looking to either advance their career or just get further education in general. Of course, we’re always trying to stay competitive with salaries. I just feel like he does a good job of really listening to his team members every weekend. He’s always either here or in Rumford.

BN. Is there some type of master plan regarding future services?

SJ. So, we do look a lot at strategic planning and what it looks like for each geography — looking at the population and what the needs are. We have a large population of people in the community that need those services, like cardiology, GI and orthopedics. We are always looking at that. When people look to move into a town, that’s one thing that people look at, is there a hospital in this community because I want to be close to healthcare. Being a person from a rural community myself, it’s very important to me that my family doesn’t have to drive a distance for services. Oncology is a perfect example. Patients would like to be close to home when they’re not feeling well after a whole day of treatment. I think everybody is very committed to keeping services here to the best that we can.

BN. What do you see as the many challenges small hospitals face right now?

SJ. I think the biggest challenge is the workforce. Nursing schools are not at capacity. So, it’s really important to engage our high school students. We’re going to a lot of school career fairs to present what opportunities exist in healthcare and tell students what we can offer them even at an entry level position.

BN. How do you plan to reach out to the local communities and make connections?

SJ. I have a list. I’ve made some contacts, and I think it’s just being present for any community event to meet all community members.