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V O L . X X I V N O. X I M AY 2 8 , 2 0 1 8 22 L E W I S T O N / A U B U R N F O C U S after saving his son's life by connecting transplant teams at two hospitals and donating his own bone marrow. Tripp, who serves as the company's CEO, also co-founded reputation.com to help businesses improve their online reputa- tion. Like that company, Grand Rounds is backed by venture capital — raising 10 million so far in four rounds. Grand Rounds brought a small team to Auburn in 201 before mov- ing across the Androscoggin River to Lewiston in March 2017. In Maine, Grand Rounds works with large employers with operations here, including Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's and Canada's McCain Foods Ltd. Maine-based employers include the State of Maine, which employs 12,000 but off ers Grand Rounds to around 30,000 health-plan members. " e program not only provides the member written clinical advice based upon the member's personal medical records, it has proven to save the state health care dollars, as the recommen- dations generally produce quality case outcomes, which avoids additional unnecessary or diff erent services," says Kurt Caswell, director of employee health and benefi ts, via email. Similarly, Dead River off ers Grand Rounds benefi ts to all 1,200 of its employees and their families regard- less of whether they are in the health plan or not, says Langevin. " e value of the Grand Rounds benefi t for Dead River Co. employees is knowing that our employees who are experiencing an illness or that of a loved one can have the guidance and support of health care professionals and the access to top-tier experts who will guide them through the maze that is our health care system," he says. "As a health care payer, there is little or noth- ing we can do to help our employees navigate these life-impacting decisions. Grand Rounds takes care of that." Experts say Grand Rounds' approach makes sense. While 80% of people in a compa- ny's health plan tend to be healthy, "it is the small number of complex cases that drives a tremendous amount of the cost," says Peter Hayes, CEO of the Healthcare Purchaser Alliance of Maine, a Topsham-based nonprofi t. " at's where Grand Rounds is meant to help." Mitchell Stein, an independent consultant in Cumberland, agrees that Grand Rounds provides a useful service but underscores that it's dealing with only a small piece of health-care costs, saying: " ey're not going to fi x everything." Lewiston hiring spree In Lewiston, Grand Rounds is now up to 80 employees, out of 00 total in three offi ces. By the end of the summer, it aims to be up to 100 in Maine's second- largest city as it hires nurses and doctors as well as non-clinical staff working in care coordination and medical records, according to Danielle Snow, Grand Rounds' senior vice president for patient care and a Lewiston native who spearheaded the Maine expansion. Among open positions in Lewiston currently advertised online are staff physicians and several care team staff jobs, including a bilingual English- Spanish care coordinator. "We're actively hiring," says Snow, who splits her time between San Francisco and Lewiston, where Grand Rounds has a modern open-plan offi ce in e Bates Mill Complex in a space it keeps outgrowing—going from 10,000 to 2,000 square feet it expects to add to soon. Room to grow was, in fact, a main reason for choosing that location where it worked with developer Tom Platz of Platz Associates to create a space with the same feel of its West Coast locations while preserving the architectural integ- rity of the revamped textile mill. " ey're a great company because they're growing," says Platz, who believes that Lewiston won out over Portland and Biddeford mainly because it could guar- antee an abundance of parking spaces. Grand Rounds had, in fact, looked at cities up and down the East Coast before settling on Lewiston, which unlike Portland off ered tax incentives as a Pine Tree Development Zone. "It defi nitely was an important part of our consideration as we looked at the fi nancials," Snow said. "Lewiston was an area where the incentives were avail- able to us, which made a diff erence." e Bates Mill was also ideal as a place to start small and grow in phases, she adds. Building a workforce Despite the challenge of recruiting in a state with the oldest population and historically low unemployment, Grand Rounds has had no trouble hiring in Lewiston, through a combination of company transfers and new recruits. "I've had amazing luck fi nding can- didates," says Meryl Fogg, a Yarmouth native who left J.P. Morgan in Chicago to head Grand Rounds' care operations in Lewiston. " ere is a plethora of tal- ent at health care centers, hospitals and training schools in the area, and we've been really pleased with the people we've hired. e work ethic is incredible, and their commitment to the mission of put- ting patients fi rst is truly admirable." Among employees who've trans- ferred from San Francisco, 30-year-old care coordinator Nyada Batieste took an immediate liking to Lewiston. "I love the community," she says. "When I fi rst came here, everywhere I went there were fundraisers going on. You could defi nitely tell there's a deep- rooted community-activism vibe." Snow says that while further expan- sion depends on sales, the company is committed to Lewiston even if the Pine Tree incentive program is not extended. A bill to do that is held up in Augusta. "We came to a place where we felt we could make a diff erence," she says. "We feel like we're doing that." R C • , M a i n e b i z s e n i o r w r i t e r, c a n b e r e a c h e d a t • @ . a n d @ • » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E THERE IS A DIFFERENCE THERE IS Because Construction Management Design/Build General Contracting Engineering Sheridan Construction www.sheridancorp.com Fairfield Portland 207-453-9311 207-774-6138 Bear's Den, UMO Grand Rounds Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Reno and Lewiston Founded: 2011 by Owen Tripp (CEO) and Dr. Lawrence "Rusty" Hofmann Funding: $106 million raised in four venture capital funding rounds Employees: 400 total, including 80 in Lewiston (and 100 by end of summer) Reach: Has helped patients on six continents and supports cases in over 150 countries Contact: www.grandrounds.com As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or As a health care payer, there is little or nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees nothing we can do to help our employees navigate these life-impacting decisions. Grand Rounds takes care of that. — Guy Langevin Dead River Co.

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