Marie Vienneau, President and CEO, Mayo Hospital (abridged)

Today’s guest is Marie Vienneau, the President and CEO of Mayo Hospital in Dover Foxcroft, Maine. Mayo Hospital is a critical access hospital in rural central Maine. Mayo Hospital is the primary hospital for the 17,000 residents of Piscataquis county, spread over a land mass roughly the size of Connecticut.Prior to coming to Mayo Hospital, Marie worked at Millinocket Regional Hospital, in her home town of Millinocket, Maine, where she rose from staff nurse to President and CEO. During her tenure, like much of rural Maine, the two paper mills that were the economic engines of her community closed down. We talk at length about what it is like leading a non-profit community hospital during a time of economic downturn, and how she led the organization and worked with the community to care for her fellow residents. Marie has been the President and CEO of Mayo Hospital since 2014. Mayo Hospital has a unique governance structure: it is a quasi-governmental entity governed by a Hospital Administrative District, which I was not familiar with. We discuss how this governance structure is different from the typical non-profit hospital’s governance structure and the challenges of working in this different environment. Mayo Hospital is currently in negotiations to merge with Northern Light Health, formerly the Eastern Maine Health System, one of the three largest health systems in Maine, and we discuss some of the challenges of going through a merger process. We close on a discussion of leadership.The full-length interview runs about 90 minutes. I have produced an abridged version that runs about an hour. This is the abridged version. If you’d like to listen to the full-length version, please see our web site, http://healthleaderforge.org for the link. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit healthleaderforge.substack.com