Central Maine Healthcare history

The Maine Medical Journal was established in 1910, with the first monthly journal being dated December 1910.

The largest known attendance of physicians at an Annual Meeting was 322 in 1946 at the Poland Spring Inn.

In 1949, a sister organization, the Woman’s Auxiliary to MMA was established as a powerful ally.

In 1951, Maine General Hospital, the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary, and Children’s Hospital merge to become Maine Medical Center.

In 1952, W. Mayo Payson, an attorney, was appointed as the first Executive Secretary.

But as MMA President Eugene H. Drake, M.D. (Portland) stated in his President’s address at the Centennial Annual Session in 1953;

He resigned in 1955 and in May of that year, Doctor Daniel Hanley was appointed to the position and the title changed to Executive Director.

Thomas Foster, MD, a third generation MMA President, continued as Editor of the Journal until 1956, when Doctor Hanley assumed that role as well.

Thanks to an early commitment to cardiac research, MMC was one of the first community hospitals in the nation to perform open heart surgery in 1959.

Doctor Hanley ably served MMA for 24 years, retiring in 1979.

Completion of the L.L. Bean Building in 1985 provides expansion space for the Hatch Pavilion, a new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, operating suites, and specialty departments.

Maine Medical Center Research Institute was officially organized as a division of MMC in 1991.

Frank retired in 1993 after serving the Association for 14 years.

In 1995, Doctor Hanley’s legacy was similarly honored with the naming of the second office building in Association Park as the Daniel Hanley Building.

The Gibson pavilion for cancer patients and the inpatient unit of The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital are added to the Bean Building in 1998.

In 1999 Northern Cumberland Memorial Hospital and Rumford Community Hospital merged with Central Maine Healthcare, CMMC’s parent company.

In December 2001, Bridgton Hospital dedicated an entirely new state-of-the-art facility.

His legacy includes the Maine Health Information Center, the Maine Medical Assessment Foundation (ceased existence in 2002), Medical Mutual Insurance Company of Maine, the Maine Medical Education Foundation, and a host of other projects and interests too numerous to mention.

In September of 2003, the Association elected its first woman President, Maroulla Gleaton, MD, an ophthalmologist practicing in Augusta.

Construction for the vertical expansion on top of the medical center’s lower Bean Building near the Emergency Department began in February 2014.

Surgery 2 is opened in 2015, which includes five new state-of-the-art operating rooms that were built to better meet the demand for routine and complex procedures performed today.

Planning for a $512 million expansion started in 2017.