ROCKPORT — Lauren Michalakes, MD recently joined Pen Bay Healthcare as the Medical Director of the Hospice and Palliative Care Program. Dr. Michalakes is a Hospice and Palliative Medicine physician with 20 years of experience, the majority in the state of Maine.

Dr. Michalakes moved to Maine from Buffalo, New York in 1999 and has been active in the development of Hospice and Palliative Care programs throughout the state. She became part of the grassroots efforts to form what is now Hospice of Southern Maine in Scarborough. She was also the program’s first Medical Director, overseeing the opening of their 18-bed inpatient hospice facility in August of 2007. In 2008, Dr. Michalakes joined Maine Medical Center’s Palliative Care Program as Attending Physician and served as Program Director from 2009-2012. Highlights from her time at Maine Medical Center include the start-up for the state’s first Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education fellowship training program in Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2012. Dr. Michalakes also contributed to the creation of quality metrics that define excellence in palliative care, as part of Maine Medical Center’s Annual Implementation Plan from 2012 to 2014.

Dr. Michalakes is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, with an American Board of Internal Medicine sub specialty certification in Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

At the state level, Dr. Michalakes has worked with the Maine Hospice Council and Center for End of Life Care. She is also a member of the Maine Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment Coalition. At the national level, Dr. Michalakes was a member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine’s National Task Force for Quality and Standards from 2012-2015. During this time, the task force was deeply involved in “Measuring What Matters”, a National initiative which will serve to define particular quality measures as they relate to palliative care programs in all sites, in all settings, across the country. She is also recognized nationally as a certified facilitator, instructor and faculty member in Respecting Choices© Last Steps curriculum for Advance Care Planning, which is an internationally recognized leader in the development of advance care planning systems.

Pen Bay Healthcare’s Hospice and Palliative Care Program Department provides palliative care consulting services at Pen Bay Medical Center, Knox Center for Long Term Care, Quarry Hill, and all other Pen Bay Healthcare associated physician practices. Additionally, Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care & Hospice provides palliative care services in the home setting and at the Sussman House. The Sussman House is a state licensed and Medicare Certified facility that provides high quality end of life care for hospice patients and their families. The Sussman House is located on the Pen Bay Medical Center campus in Rockport.

Pen Bay Healthcare is pleased to welcome Dr. Michalakes to the Pen Bay Healthcare Hospice and Palliative Care Program and the Midcoast community.

Pen Bay Healthcare

Pen Bay Healthcare is a not-for-profit family of services which includes Pen Bay Medical Center, a Leapfrog Group 2014 National Top Rural Hospital and the largest community hospital in Midcoast Maine, as well as Pen Bay Physicians & Associates, Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care and Hospice, Quarry Hill Retirement Community and the Knox Center for Long Term Care. Through these organizations and with a staff of more than 100 outstanding physicians and more than 1,500 healthcare professionals, we are able to provide the people of Midcoast Maine with a continuum of both routine and specialty patient-centered medical services. Pen Bay Healthcare is a member of the MaineHealth system. For more information, please visit penbayhealthcare.org.