Quality & Patient Experience

When choosing MaineGeneral for health services you and your loved ones need, you expect ready access to skilled and compassionate care. You also want to know the care you receive is among the best you will find.

We know you have choices, and we know quality and experience matters to you.

All MaineGeneral staff strive to give you the best experience – from the moment you make an appointment or walk through our doors to following up on the care you have received.

Recent Patient Care and Safety Successes

MaineGeneral has earned recognition for achieving high levels of patient care and safety, including:

  • Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 5-Star Rating
  • Women’s Choice Awards®: America's 100 Best Hospitals for Patient Experience, Best Hospitals for Cancer Care, Best Hospitals for Orthopaedics and Best Mammogram Imaging Centers
  • QOPI® recertification for the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care.
  • Maternity & Pediatrics earned the national Blue Distinction Specialty Care designation, a program of the BlueCross BlueShield Association recognizing health care facilities demonstrating expertise in delivering safe, effective, high-quality care.
  • MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Vascular Surgery and the Laboratory has achieved full accreditation to become one of the first Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) Vein Centers in Maine.
  • Our Echocardiology department was accredited by the IAC, the highest nationally recognized quality standards for echocardiogram imaging.
  • Radiology & Diagnostic Imaging’s Vascular Laboratory achieved IAC vascular re-accreditation. This voluntary accreditation shows our dedication to quality patient care and excellence.
  • MaineGeneral Rehabilitation and Long Term Care at Glenridge was awarded five stars, the highest rating from Medicare. It validates the high level of care Glenridge's staff give the residents daily.
  • MaineGeneral received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Rural Stroke Silver award, recognizing the organization’s efforts to address the unique health needs of rural communities, optimize stroke care, and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities. Additionally, MaineGeneral Medical Center received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award.
  • The Comfort Care Unit at Glenridge received the Maine Health Care Association’s Innovation Award for its implementation of an exceptional program to improve resident care and quality of life, enhance employee development and engage the community.
  • The US Department of Health & Human Services awarded MaineGeneral its Gold Recognition for our National Hospital Organ Donation Campaign to encourage enrollment in Maine's organ, eye and tissue donor registry.
  • MaineGeneral’s Baby-Friendly Birth Facility Designation was renewed. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) ensures birth facilities become centers of breastfeeding support for new moms and babies.

Quality Data

At MaineGeneral, we believe you should have accurate information to help you choose a hospital or health care provider based on the quality of care you can expect to receive.

You can learn about hospital quality and safety from many sources, including federal agencies, nonprofit and consumer organizations and health care accrediting agencies.

This section will help you compare MGMC with other hospitals in objective and measurable ways.

Please use this information to evaluate our care and help your family make the best decisions about your health care.

Click on the practice-specific Patient Experience Reports below for information about our level of care based on medical practice survey responses from patients.

We think we do an excellent job - but don't take our word for it.

You can also read publicly released reports about our level of care under the Quality Reporting Sites section and contact us at public@mainegeneral.org if you have questions or would like more information.

Patient Experience Reports

Primary Care

Specialty Care

Infection Prevention

MaineGeneral performs many actions to prevent or lower the risk of infection in hospitalized patients, including following well-established guidelines for reducing or eliminating infection risks.

We also follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for identifying and reporting infections.

MaineGeneral also is among many hospitals in the U.S. that have voluntarily implemented practices to improve the quality and safety of our patients' health care. Safety is our number-one priority!

Partnering with our Patients: Hand Hygiene Campaign

Good hand hygiene is key to preventing the spread of infection to patients.

MGMC was one of the first hospitals in Maine to join the Partnering with Our Patients hand-washing campaign.

Hospitalized patients receive education about hand hygiene and are encouraged to ask their care providers if they have cleaned their hands.

The program is a cooperative project among MaineGeneral, the University of Pennsylvania and Steris, our soap supplier.

At this point, Maine and U.S. data are not available for comparison purposes.

Medication Safety

Keeping a current list of your medications is one way to help your care providers take the best possible care of you!

Knowing your exact medications and dosages is key to preventing medication errors.

An emergency — or even a scheduled test or treatment — can be stressful and is not the best time to gather your medication history.

However, your care provider and our hospital staff can't accurately treat you without this vital information.

To avoid problems, follow the tips below to create your medication list.

What to Include

Your medication list should include the following information for each medication you take:

  • Medication name
  • Dosage (in mg)
  • How often you take it
  • Prescriptions from your health care provider(s)
  • Over-the-counter medications
  • Dietary supplements
  • Vitamins
  • Herbal medications

In addition, you should:

  • Know if you are allergic to any medications; and
  • Keep a list of your allergies and sensitivities to medications and the type of reaction you've had.

Finally, it's important to answer the following questions about each medication:

  • What is it for?
  • What common side effects do you experience, if any?
  • How long do you need to take it?
  • What interactions may occur with other medications?
  • Do diet or activity affect this medication?

Quality Reporting Sites