The president of Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center resigned from his position on Wednesday.
Gregory LaFrancois stepped down effective immediately, the hospital system said Wednesday afternoon. LaFrancois became president in May 2023, after working as president at Northern Light AR Gould Hospital in Presque Isle.
“Greg’s understanding of healthcare, both rural and urban, and his passion for connecting with staff will be missed,” Northern Light Health President and CEO Tim Dentry said in a message to staff. “We thank him for all he brought to the Medical Center.”
LaFrancois’ departure is the latest upheaval for Northern Light Health, which has scaled back or cut services in the wake of the pandemic. The health care provider had a more than $60 million deficit at the end of the second quarter, according to an unaudited financial statement.
The leader of Northern Light Lafayette Family Cancer Institute, Ava Collins, will be an interim president. Collins joined the health system in June. Collins will continue her role as head of oncology.
A search for the new president will start in the spring, Northern Light Health spokesperson Suzanne Spruce said.
LaFrancois sent an email to employees in July that said the hospital is “headed into very choppy waters.”
“There have been many industry-wide impacts that have hurt EMMC,” he said in an email that was shared with the Bangor Daily News. “Government programs have been cut, expansion of Medicare Advantage reduced reimbursement, our costs increased, and many other headwinds have kicked up.”
To compensate for this, LaFrancois said the hospital was looking at how it spends money and finding ways to provide services “at a cost we can afford.”
Collins previously worked in executive roles for Tenet Healthcare, in Framingham and Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father-in-law, Dr. Philip Kimball, worked as an orthopedic surgeon at EMMC for 40 years, while her mother-in-law, Janet Kimball, was a nurse and breast cancer survivor who was treated at the same cancer center Collins is now in charge of, the hospital said.
