Fulfilling a Dream & Expanding Dermatology Care

Increasing access for established patients with acute care needs

Opening Tuesday F ebruary 16 !

For those who may have missed it, this was a lovely interview piece written by George Harvey for the PenBay Pilot in April. It summarizes our early response to the COVID crisis and confirms we have an AMAZING team here at CDMS!!

This year has brought more than its fair set of trials to our practice, our region, our state, our nation and our world. I feel such a sense of loss as I am sure so many of us do with regard to the natural order of our lives and our activities. As challenging as it has been crafting a plan for our practice and our patients, I cannot imagine the burden which presently rests with our educators contemplating the safety of school staff and our children amidst the chaos that is COVID-19. I pray that as the school year opens in a very unconventional way, that our community will remain healthy and continue with the dedication to safety we have demonstrated all along. I would like to also offer my sincerest appreciation for the large number of cards and well wishes I have received over the last month. Some of you may be aware that I had to have a total hip replacement at the very end of July and as a result I have been out of the office for the month of August. I remain extraordinarily grateful to Dr. Alise Curry who once again provided phenomenal care to our patients in my absence. It is not always easy for physicians to address her or his own health care needs, but it was clear that I was at my functional limit. Having experienced what it is like to attempt to work through excruciating chronic pain, my heart goes out to those who cannot find relief. I remain ever grateful for the extraordinary care I received from Dr. Tom Mitchell at Pen Bay Orthopedics as well as Dr. George Babikian at Maine Medical Partners Orthopedics for their remarkable skill in helping me through this incredibly difficult time. I cannot recommend them highly enough. 🍃🌾🍂🍁 Things are beginning to fall back into place for us at Camden Dermatology & Mohs Surgery as well, and most excitingly we will have a new dermatologist joining us very shortly (to be covered in a separate post). After a very comprehensive search, I was also thrilled to hire a new operations manager who began with us this month. Please welcome Dave Largen to the practice. Dave joins us from most recently serving as Manager of Spruce Point Inn in Boothbay Harbor for many years. He is excited to make the transition to serving patients and our staff with the same level of pride and courtesy that is customary in the hospitality industry. With so many things occurring all at once I never got to express my formal appreciation for the service and dedication shown by both CC Hayden and Brittany Kenniston over the past two years. CC has relocated back to her home state of Connecticut to be closer to family and Brittany had a wonderful opportunity to be full time with her family's business. We miss them both very much, and wish them every success. We are looking to make changes to our patient flow including transitioning back to having an in person front desk assistant as well as a highly controlled, socially distanced waiting room environment so you can expect to hear more about this coming soon. Thank you again to our patients for all your understanding in these last very difficult months.

Please join me in welcoming Sam Cohen, PA-C to the practice. Sam is a very experienced dermatology focused physician assistant who joined our practice in early November. He has been working specifically in dermatology since 2013. He will be seeing adult and pediatric dermatology patients within the practice currently on Fridays. Given the access issues that are notable in underserved areas like our own, it is our hope to continue to provide timely care for our current patients and potentially expand our capacity to care for new patients as well. Dr. Lavigne will be providing supervisory expertise as a board certified dermatologist in an indirect and direct manner as clinically indicated.

I know I have a tendency to brag on my staff, but I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to start this practice with such an amazing group of assistants. As most of you will understand, starting a medical practice these days has its challenges. One of those is keeping a balance between the best service and managing costs. If we had unlimited resources, I think an in-house call center would be ideal. Then all calls could be answered by a LIVE person, a REAL human being on the line with you in REAL time. But presently I have an amazing assistant Jessica who answers (or tries to answer!) every call. Let me tell you, Jessica is awesome. She is kind, through and communicates more clearly than almost anyone I know. She is a machine when it comes to taking calls. But clearly she is one person (although often she does the work of many more). So what happens when she is helping schedule an appointment and someone else calls? More often than not, the second call will go to voicemail. It is our goal to have all our assistant staff checking the voicemail logs regularly in order to respond in a timely fashion. But alas on busy days, this system can lead to frustration and the anticipation of playing another round of phone tag just gets daunting. Well, we have finally landed on what we hope is an ideal solution. Type "Hello" to Klara. When coming to the website, you will find a new nice little blue box in the lower right hand corner of the screen with the prompt, "Message Us". Clicking this box will open up a channel to allow for HIPAA secure messaging straight to our support staff at the office. Using the vast power of technology, our office can more easily distribute these HIPAA secure messages to any available staff member to respond in a much more efficient manner, and wait for it, you can even upload a HIPAA secure photo if needed! Thanks for your continued support of Camden Dermatology & Mohs Surgery!

Whether you and your family celebrate Hanukkah or Christmas, this season marks a time of year to be conscientious for our blessings. Over the past nine months, our little practice has grown and triumphed over numerable challenges, such as unexpected snow days (right after opening), sickness (personal, familial & staff!), hiring and training new assistants as well as the well-deserved retirement of my amazingly talented Mohs technician Sandy this past Fall. When we started in March with a backlog of hundreds of calls of patients anxious to establish with our fledgling practice little did we know that we would be temporarily closing Dr. Lavigne's schedule to new medical dermatology as our registered patients exceeded 2,200 in only a short 6 months.  All of this would not have been possible without countless blessings, and of course hard work from everyone involved, plus a little patience from you all, our patients. I have long been a proponent of the adage, "Let go & let God". This philosophy reminds me that blessings can come in the most unexpected ways. I pray that you and your family may have both anticipated and unexpected blessings this holiday season. Thank you for all your support and encouragement! Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! We wish you a joyous time with family, friends and loved ones, and BLESSINGS for health, happiness and prosperity in the new year. ~ Dr. Lavigne

It is hard to believe that we are coming up to our 5th month anniversary!!! We are extremely proud of our accomplishments to date, and we will continue working hard to refine our processes and ensure every patient has a wonderful experience. I would like to take an opportunity to praise the most dedicated start-up staff with whom I have ever had the fortune of working. The staff of Camden Dermatology & Mohs Surgery is the backbone of the practice and their efforts are amazing. It has been the mission of Camden Dermatology & Mohs Surgery to place a priority on compassion , ethical integrity and putting patients first . This means that patients are always central. I am pleased that we will have some good news in the near future as we look to grow in serving our patients and to continue to revolutionize the dermatologic care available in Mid-Coast Maine.