Being at the hospital has a way of putting things in perspective, at least for me. Hospitals bring us together, touching almost everyone in the community at some point in our lives, and at some of the most emotionally charged moments — moments that bring out the best and the worst in us. You see people at every stage of their lives, and whenever I recognize someone, I do a quick scan before greeting them, trying to discern whether it's a time to congratulate or console. But for me, whether I’ve been at Pen Bay as a patient, volunteer, or visitor, it has always felt like home and I've always seen everyone at the hospital bringing their best even when myself and others are at our worst. 

Last October, needing a break from the hospital chairs, I took a walk out back and discovered the “community wellness trail” winding through the wooded section of the property that separates the campus buildings from the ocean. It is actually open to the public and can be accessed right off of Route 1, as well as a number of entry points from the hospital itself. It even has stations with recommended stretches and exercies along the way.

Listening to the ocean waves through the trees was just what I needed and a  natural coastline always makes me feel healthier. I was glad to see the hospital owned property existing in harmony with the Midcoast's rugged, wild, irregular coastline, and it left me overflowing with gratitude for the place and the people that have been there for me over and over again. 

I posted something short on Facebook expressing how lucky we are to have the hospital and the people who work there, and I wasn’t sure what kind of a response it might provoke. After almost a decade as an elected official in Camden, I’ve learned that the majority of people do not feel motivated to speak up until they have a grievance, mostly because they underestimate how much their voice might be needed. I know this is the case with town government, but I’m pretty sure it’s true with a lot of things.

Hospitals are in the business (a not-for-profit business in this case) of responding to complaints, but that shouldn't be all they hear. I wanted to write something unsolocited and positive, but I was actually a little afraid that posting anything about Pen Bay might turn into an opportunity for people to air grievances, as can often happen on social media, and as I've seen with local and national political issues. But much to my delight, the opposite happened. I heard from friends and total strangers and even people who I swear have made a hobby out of being against anything I support—the wave of positivity toward Pen Bay Medical Center was overwhelming.

2025 marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of our hospital, and I hope that some of the people who helped make it happen are around to enjoy what a difference they made. Hundreds of people "liked" the post, but it was the comments that stayed with me —dozens upon dozens of neighbors sharing their own stories of a life saved, a hand held, or a kindness shown in a dark hour. Here are a few among many more: 

"They saved my life at Pen Bay with a heart bleed in two places. High praise for them."

"I have been getting world-class treatment at Pen Bay, for which I'm very grateful."

"My father brought over 2k babies into the world at our great hospital! Proud to have other family, past & present, working there as well. I'm currently a security officer & love the facility, campus, & my coworkers in all departments."

"YES! Plus, Pen Bay’s walk-in clinic in Rockland is a fantastic addition to its full-service, community-accessible approach. Kudos to Pen Bay!"

"Cardio rehab has one of the best views anywhere on the coast. And the best care."

"I have been a frequent patient at Pen Bay and can’t praise the facility and staff highly enough. The oncology department is second to none.”

"PBMC is a gem in this community. The care is excellent, and the staff is genuinely caring and compassionate... I am grateful for the top-notch care and treatment I have received."

I've noticed that every time I share positive feedback with the administrators or staff, they get the same look on their face I feel at the grocery store when a Camden resident stops me and tells me I'm doing something well on the Select Board. They must not hear quite enough of it.

Over the past couple of months, each time I find myself waiting there, I’ve been asking questions and doing a little research to understand how this place even exists and who makes it possible. I am finally making sure I take some time to share some of this for anyone who might be curious.

For those who don’t know, Pen Bay Medical Center is part of a nonprofit network of hospitals called MaineHealth.  There are no corporate shareholders and it is not a for-profit system like we see in other parts of the country. At a time when rural hospitals all around the state and country are closing, ours is actually improving.

 I know nothing is perfect, and I know there are still deep-seated flaws in the hierarchy of healthcare, but what we have here is a rural hospital beating the odds. Volunteer board members, fundraising committees, full transparency in financial reporting, and a robust financial aid program funded by the hospital itself. They will cover the costs of anyone under 200% of the poverty thresholds. There's a program called FreeCare that you can ask about.

In 2024, Pen Bay was one of just 15 hospitals across the country to earn a "top rural hospital" designation by the nation's leading hospital watchdog organization.  With more than 1,000 employees reporting to the campus in Glen Cove and many more in satellite locations, the hospital is by far the region's largest employer. Despite some lower ratings and capacity issues that have arisen on and off, it is now consistently receiving coveted A-ratings for safety, in addition to awards for innovation, pediatric care, sustainability initiatives, and more. 

Pen Bay Medical Center from the shore, looking toward the Camden Hills.

Personally, that's no surprise to me. Every experience I've had at Pen Bay (most of them before the hospital was rated as well as it is now), from my own birth, to the birth of my children, to life-threatening car accidents, to visiting friends and family in the ICU, the PARC (psychiatric) unit, the maternity ward, cancer care, you name it—it has all been exemplary. 

Too often, people only speak up to air a grievance and they forget to give credit where credit is due. We develop such impossible standards that we take for granted what a miracle it is that a hospital like this exists at all. One commenter on my post reminded us:

"I remember the very controversial issues involved with the creation of Pen Bay Medical Center and the closing of Camden Hospital... [and] those who worked so hard with advocating for this to happen."

It’s a point worth remembering, especially for those of us not around back when a regional medical center was just an idea. I did a little digging into the archives, and it was worth than I thought! It was also a good reminder that meaningful progress is seldom embraced by everyone in the planning stages.

Pen Bay opened its doors in 1975 after a bitter fight over whether to close the Camden Community Hospital. Federal funding was tied to regional cooperation, and the economics simply couldn’t work with each town competing against Pen Bay with their own operation. Rockland understood and embraced the transition from their local Knox County General Hospital to a shared system, but many in Camden feared losing too much control.

We actually can't be sure how much fear there was generally, but we do know that some of them were very very loud. The closing of the small, familiar hospitals was painful and required a leap of faith that many in the community (especially Camden) were skeptical of. 

The editors of the Camden Herald, in particular, took a strong stance against regional cooperation, questioning the motives of local physicians and accusing the Pen Bay advocates of promising an extravagant pipe dream. Local control of a hospital with a small-town feel was elevated as superior to a modern facility of “professional elites,” and the board of the Camden Community Hospital was put under incredible pressure to resist being absorbed by Pen Bay. Here are a few of the quotes from newspaper archives.

“We also don’t believe the Penobscot Bay Medical Center will be built at Clam Cove in Rockport. We cannot see how the state or federal health planners can now endorse a concept so divided in support or improbable in assets.” — Editorial, Jan 18, 1973

"The PBMC promoters are adamant and opted for nothing less than the best, but it is a 'best' built on slick brochures and misreadings of public support." — Editorial, Jan 18, 1973

"We are being sold a pipe dream of helicopters and high-tech."  — Letter to the editor, February 1973

As it became clear that the public was struggling to understand the need for regional changes in the delivery of hospital and related services, a number of physicians began an effort to educate the public and push back on some of the assertions made by PBMC opponents. John W. Wickenden and numerous other physicians eventually resigned from Camden Community Hospital in protest, arguing that doctors could not be traveling back and forth between multiple partially equipped facilities. He and others pointed out that much of the controversy in the community resulted from the newspaper’s failure to report on the full context. 

“Our Camden-Rockport community needs the PBMC. Camden Community Hospital has done an admirable job in providing the services of a small local hospital. It cannot, nor can it ever, provide the comprehensive and sophisticated medical care which the resources of our county make potentially available. We have it within our ability to work with those who are developing the PBMC to provide a facility which can give us medical care in breadth, depth, and quality commensurate with the potentialities of the 1970s.”

"The columns of the Herald are filled with letters of hostile criticism... while the general public is left with a complete misunderstanding." — Dr. Vincent Lathbury, Jan 18, 1973.

Alma Anderson argued in favor of the merger, suggesting that the "independent mindedness" of Maine citizens should not prevent them from combining resources for the common good. 

"The services required to make life better for us all become unwieldy and almost prohibitive unless resources are combined and offered to larger numbers than can be served by small institutions... If we don’t allow our much-loved hospital to throw in its resources with the inevitably enlarging community health care for our region, it can only degenerate after all the generosity and hard work that have made it what it is, into a minor nursing home or something of the sort." — Alma Anderson, Aug 20, 1970.

PBMC opened in 1975 without the full support of Camden. This period of time probably explains some of the negativity I used to perceive as a teenager from a few people with regard to the hospital. After so much effort trying to prove that Camden didn’t need help from anyone, and that our hospital was good enough as it was, it was perhaps hard for them to see Pen Bay the way I’ve always seen it. Perfectly located, friendly, familiar, and filled with people I’ve known all my life and others I’m grateful to share the space with.

Nine years after the hospital opened, it’s where I took my first breath. Forty-one years later, I’ve sat with friends during their final days at the Sussman House, given birth to two of my own children, watched doctors save my mother’s life after a car accident that was fatal for another mother and daughter, and spent countless hours doing my weekly medical supply pickups as a volunteer for Partners for World Health. 

The people and the place have been a lifeline and a safety net in more ways than a hospital should have to be. All of this is thanks to medical and facility staff, donors, administrators, volunteers, and board members who are not only technically competent but also deliver an incredible blend of compassion, kindness, wisdom, and even wit. 

While I never realized the full history that led to it, I think we would all agree it’s everything the community was promised in the 1970s.

We have specialists, surgeries, research studies, clinical trials, mental health services, and a wealth of medical equipment and technology that would have been entirely impossible to duplicate in multiple Midcoast hospitals. 

The people who had studied the issue knew that the only way for small communities like ours to have modern high-quality care was to pool resources and build on common ground. It seems so obvious now, but it was a bold vision then, and it came at a significant political and social cost for some. Those who advocated and donated from the beginning are to be commended. 

Among them were more than 30 financial institutions and businesses—somewhat of a diplomatic miracle given all the controversy at the time. 

Fifty years later, major donations to the latest capital improvements such as the emergency room have come from some of the same local businesses, including the Allen Agency, Camden National Bank, Viking Lumber, and First National Bank, as well as  newer donors including Horch Roofing, O’Hara Corp., and Cedar Works. 

And here is something else that really floored me: The nurses, doctors, technicians, facility and admistrative staff donated over $500,000 of their wages and hundreds of hours of their own vacation time to help build the very wings we sit in. Think about that. The people doing the hardest, most exhausting work are also the ones reaching into their own pockets to make sure this place exists for the rest of us.

But it has been about more than money. A lot of smart people caring and paying attention and making difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions with their best judgement for the greater good. In a country where rural hospitals are vanishing, Pen Bay is improving. It’s a place where you can call an ambulance at 3 a.m. and know that there is somewhere to go, regardless of who you are. And today, the emergency room is better than ever. 

I am also lucky to also have somewhat of a “backstage pass”.

For years, I’ve worked with the team at Pen Bay picking up surplus medical supplies for organizations like Partners for World Health. Thanks to people like Jim, Adam, Nick, Ted, Mary, Judy, Tiffany, and so many more, a retired piece of equipment from Rockport, Maine, can provide hope in a war zone. A surplus pair of crutches can go to a community member with no health insurance. 

It is exhausting, heavy work. Sometimes emotionally and sometimes physically. It’s the weight of being “on” for twelve hours, being patient when people are at their worst, and being strong when things are falling apart.

The work at the actual hospital is both exhausting and inspiring, gratifying and thankless, all depending on the day or the hour. But so too is the governance part of all this. The logistics, the board meetings, the public relations, the letters to the editor, the complaints, personalities, and misundertandings. 

Researching the history of the hospital and reading through the very unfair attacks printed about the effort in Camden Herald archives from the 1970s was eye opening to me.

I actually caught myself gasping at the terrible things said about the doctors, donors, and organizers who promoted a modern, regional, shared medical facility for Midcoast Maine.

But at the same time, I was left with an even greater appreciation for the sacrifice, vision, and generosity of the individuals and organizations who made this place possible. 

It was harder than I ever realized to break ground 50 years ago, but a generation later, most of us can’t begin to imagine the Midcoast without it.

Thank you to everyone who keeps making it even better.

Quilt made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of Pen Bay Medical Center

The quilt celebrating the 25th anniversary of the opening.

Alison McKellar lives in Camden