The career of MaineHealth Memorial Hospital’s new president has taken her from Maine, around the world, and now to North Conway to lead the 25-bed critical access hospital serving the Mount Washington Valley of northern NH and western Maine.
Tricia Costigan, who became president of MaineHealth Memorial in February, was raised in Dover Foxcroft, Maine. After finishing high school she became a certified nursing assistant and served as a nurse’s aide at a local nursing home. She then joined the U.S. Navy, serving as a hospital corpsman and was stationed in Portsmouth, VA, and lived as far away as Guam. “My journey has been anything but traditional,” Costigan says, explaining that it was while serving in the Navy that she found her knack for administration.
Costigan, who succeeds Bradley Chapman as president, most recently served as senior vice president and then president of Northern Light Inland Hospital and Continuing Care Lakewood in Waterville, Maine. While at Inland Hospital, Costigan created a partnership with Purdue Global, an online university that is part of the Purdue University system, leading to the formation of a simulation lab for healthcare staff to hone their skills. “That partnership worked out well,” Costigan says. “I’m always looking for creative solutions to help others become better and to find a job that brings them joy.”
Costigan says the healthcare industry is facing multiple challenges. “People are sicker today than in the past and the financial pressure people are facing is unsustainable,” she says. To confront these and other challenges, Costigan says she is committed to making sure her team of 525 physicians and other practice providers at MaineHealth Memorial is rejuvenated and that positions are filled.
Due to the nursing shortage, hospitals have become dependent on expensive traveling nurses to fill critical staffing gaps, but MaineHealth Memorial has lowered its demand for them. “Traveling nurses cover when staff goes on leave and that’s a good role for them,” Costigan says. “But many hospitals are relying on them, and it has taken some concentrated effort to reduce this reliance.”
Costigan says she enjoys spending time outdoors at her camp on Sebec Lake near her hometown of Dover Foxcroft and being close to family and friends. She is also grateful to serve people in the northern New England communities that helped shape her. “A person’s health and wellness are a very personal journey that needs to be reliable,” she says. “I’ve been in healthcare for many years in many parts of the country and I’ve come back to that place that raised me, so this makes this new role a personal mission of helping people in my community.”
