Mid Coast Hospital. Contributed / Mid Coast-Parkview Health

Mid Coast–Parkview Health President Lois Skillings will retire early next year, according to an announcement from the Brunswick-based health care group.

Mid Coast-Parkview Health President Lois Skillings Contributed

Skillings, who has been with the organization for more than 40 years, is retiring to spend more time with family, according to a Mid Coast–Parkview spokesperson.

“I still feel the same about this organization now as I did when I was a new graduate nurse,” Skillings said in a statement to The Times Record. “It isn’t the role of President that I will miss when I retire next year; it is this special place and the special people who work here. Throughout my entire career, I have been honored to help care for the health of this community: my community, where I grew up; where I raised my family; where I worked as a nurse and a health care leader; and where I will embark on my next chapter spending time with my loved ones. It is the right time.”

A registered nurse, Skillings has worked for Mid Coast–Parkview in different capacities since 1979, serving as president for the past 11 years.

Skillings has helped oversee major changes in how healthcare is delivered in the Brunswick area, as hospitals merged and consolidated over the past 20 years.

After the merger of the Bath Memorial and Brunswick Regional Hospitals to form Mid Coast Hospital in 1991, she was instrumental in the planning for a new hospital building that opened on Medical Center Drive in 2001, which was followed by a $21.3 million expansion in 2009, according to the retirement announcement.

Skillings was a central figure when Mid Coast Health Services merged with its then-rival, Parkview Adventist Medical Center, to form Mid Coast–Parkview Health as part of a financially driven, quickly drawn $8 million agreement in 2015.

Just five years later, Mid Coast–Parkview Health initiated a merger with MaineHealth, the state’s largest healthcare provider and one of the state’s largest employers, focused on sharing technology, resources and the long-term view of maintaining care.

Integration with MaineHealth would continue in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw healthcare workers locally and worldwide driven to exhaustion.

“We are so proud and grateful to every one of our 2,100 care team members, from the front line to the support staff, for all they are doing,” Skillings wrote in a 2021 column in The Times Record. “From combating the pandemic, merging with MaineHealth and implementing a new electronic health record to help care for you even better, their dedication has been remarkable.”

Skillings oversaw the growth of Mid Coast Medical Group, including the construction of new buildings for primary care practices in Bath and Topsham, and the establishment of Mid Coast Medical Group–Brunswick Primary Care and the Mid Coast Hospital Walk-In Clinic.

She was part of a successful capital campaign that expanded wellness and cancer care offerings on the Parkview campus and significant upgrades to Mid Coast Senior Health, including the construction of a new wing and numerous facility renovations.

Prior to being named president and CEO of Mid Coast Health Services in 2011, Skillings worked as vice president of nursing and patient services from 1995-2010, then executive vice president from 2010-2011.

Mid Coast Parkview Health President and CEO Lois Skillings thanks Daniel Atkins for his words of encouragement throughout the pandemic. “Seeing you there at the end of the driveway gave us all courage,” she said. Hannah LaClaire / Times Record file photo

Skillings began her career at Brunswick Regional Hospital as a medical-surgical nurse, then as an emergency nurse.

She holds a degree from Northeastern University College of Nursing, and a master’s from the University of Southern Maine.

Skillings’ exact retirement date has not been set, but will be in early 2023.

“Lois’s commitment to the health of this community—her community—has been nothing short of admirable,” Mid Coast–Parkview Health Board Chairperson Lennie Burke and MaineHealth Chief Operating Officer Kelly Elkins wrote in a joint statement. “She has made an extraordinary mark on local health care, and her efforts have helped to make our communities among the healthiest in Maine.”

Burke and Elkins continued: “She has cared for the organization and tended to its needs in such a way that empowers Mid Coast–Parkview Health to remain successful long into the future. We thank Lois for her 43 years of dedicated service caring for this organization, our care team members, and the patients and communities we serve.”

The Mid Coast–Parkview Health Board of Directors and the MaineHealth leadership team are searching for a replacement.

This story was updated at 7:30 a.m. on March 3, 2022, to include the reason for Skillings’ retirement and a statement from her.