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V I E W P O I N T S W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 3 S E P T E M B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 7 For a daily digest of Maine's top business news, sign up for the Mainebiz Daily Report at mainebiz.biz/enews Get Maine's business news daily at mainebiz.biz and on Twitter (@Mainebiz). Below is some of the best from our online-only offerings: Featured @ Mainebiz.biz From the Editor M aine's rural areas face a number of challenges, ranging from a shrinking (and aging) work- force to a lack of reliable internet. But, as our health care focus in this issue points out, the challenges faced by rural hospitals are growing ever more daunting. In Washington County, Calais Regional closed its obstetrics unit in August. It is just one hospital that has had to adjust to dwindling patient numbers and rising costs. Blue Hill Memorial Hospital in and Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln have each closed obstetrics units in recent years. Emergency care is also being phased out. As Senior Writer Laurie Schreiber reports, experts say things could worsen. Financial stress, combined with the di culty of recruiting doctors, are growing burdens for rural hospitals. Along with shrinking school systems, regions are ghting to remain viable in recruiting younger residents. "When you've got a community that no longer has the ability to deliver babies, what does that say to people, who are considering moving there, about the health of that community? I think it will have a chilling e ect on the ability to market that region, particularly to families of childbearing age," Shawn Yardley, a Washington County native and CEO of Community Concepts in Lewiston, tells Laurie. It's not just rural areas in Maine that are a ected. As Senior Writer Renee Cordes reports, the Association of American Medical Colleges projects a short- age of between , and , doctors nationwide by . Still, as correspondent Maureen Milliken reports, hospitals are quickly adapting by collaborating with one another. As M. Michelle Hood, president and CEO of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, tells her, "We're going to be in a period of tremendous change for the foreseeable future," Hood says. Floods, res and earthquakes Watching Harvey and Irma devastate huge swaths of the South (not to mention forest res out west or earthquakes in Mexico) gives us reasons to be grateful we're in Maine. It's not that we aren't prone to major snowstorms and ice storms, but we can be thankful, certainly, for being spared nature's worst wrath. Heard on Main Street Hussey Seating Co., a family owned business in North Berwick, replaced the wooden bleachers at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., with its Perma-Plank bench seating and Perma-Cap bleacher covers. It completed the upper bowl during the rst stages of the renovations in and nished the lower bowl in August . Hussey Seating, which had sales of million last year, mostly in providing telescopic gym seating for schools, had other high- pro le recent jobs, installing seats for the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators. Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz Maine health care's daunting challenge Job creation in rural Maine Six Maine economic development organizations and towns will get a total of $296,000 through U.S. Department of Agriculture grants designed to boost job creation in rural areas. The grants were awarded through the USDA Rural Development's Rural Business Development Grant program, which sup- ports targeted technical assistance, training and other activities that lead to the development or expan- sion of small and emerging private businesses in rural areas. Find out more at mainebiz.biz/ruraljobs Next gen' surgical robot Eastern Maine Medical Center is the first hospital in Maine to acquire a next-generation surgical robot. The technology, the most advanced of its kind in the nation, provides greater range of motion, a clearer, more defined three-dimensional view for the surgeon and better access to the surgical site. Find out more at mainebiz.biz/surgicalrobot 1930s-era bridge: Endangered? Maine Preservation has added the Frank J. Wood Bridge span- ning the Androscoggin River between Topsham and Brunswick to its 19th Most Endangered Historic Places List, an annual listing that identifies historic properties threat- ened by development, demolition or neglect. The Maine Department of Transportation announced in June its "preferred alternative" is to replace, rath- er than repair, the bridge that opened in 1932. Find out more at mainebiz.biz/endangered Be smart. BE SHUR. bernsteinshur.com When you need someone committed to raising the bar, not just passing it. We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period We're going to be in a period of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the of tremendous change for the foreseeable future. — M. Michelle Hood Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems

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