Modern
Healthcare June 01, 2019 01:00 AM
Twenty-two miles from the rocky coast of Maine
sits 720-acre Matinicus Isle—the state’s most seaward island—with a year-round
population of less than 100. Even when the weather is at its best, accessing
healthcare services is a challenge for residents.
That’s where Maine Seacoast Mission comes in.
Headquartered on the mainland in Bar Harbor, the not-for-profit has provided
islanders with healthcare services via boat for more than 100 years. Its fiscal
2018 $3.5 million budget is funded by an endowment, donations and grants.
Today, its 74-foot steel-hulled Sunbeam V is
staffed with a registered nurse and equipped with state-of-the-art telemedicine
technologies that allow islanders to have virtual visits with mainland doctors,
mental health providers and substance abuse counselors year-round. The
organization spent $800,000 on island services in fiscal 2018, which also
included some educational and worship activities.
The Sunbeam serves Matinicus Isle and nine other
islands not connected to the mainland by bridges. Ninety percent of the
islands’ 2,700 residents use the Sunbeam’s healthcare services. While
telemedicine appointments with mainland providers are billed to patients’
insurance, all of the Sunbeam’s staff services are free to islanders.
The Sunbeam and its crew of five take three-day
trips out to the islands to provide healthcare services every two weeks, and
while they have a schedule for when they’ll visit certain islands, a trip
rarely goes as planned, said Sharon Daley, a registered nurse who works on the
boat and is director of island health services. The schedule depends on the
wind, weather, tides and the various schedules of providers. “There is really
no typical,” she said.
Most of the healthcare services are provided
onboard. But if an islander can’t get to the boat, Daley will lug her equipment
to their home, and she often gets stopped on the way for a “truck” healthcare
visit as a lobsterman drives by.
Providing telemedicine services is really just a
small fraction of the care the Sunbeam offers islanders, Daley said.
“I always call the Sunbeam the islands’ living
room because people come aboard and have cookies and talk,” she said. The
ship’s crew also often invites islanders on board for breakfasts and
suppers.
“To be a healthy, vibrant community and person
there’s a lot of different things you need,” she said. “We care not only for
the whole person, but the whole community.”
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