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“They wanted to put curtains in here, but I told them not to,” Theeman says. From be-hind the glass, Theeman, an enthusiastic man whose business card identifies him not only by his official titles but also as “head cheerleader,” can literally watch his company grow.
“This was the first time in northern New England that a commercial strip mall was transformed into a healthcare mall,” Theeman says. He points toward the far end of the complex, designed by Bangor firm Ames A/E. “That’s where the former IGA store was
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The Eastern Maine Healthcare Mall, on Union Street between the interstate and the airport, was dedicated in 1997. The Brown building, named after grocery store magnate Douglas H. Brown, who died in 2005, was completed earlier this year and now houses Affiliated Healthcare’s corporate offices and collections department.
Theeman points to the warehouse on the mall’s near end. “That’s going to be an imaging center,” he says. “When it’s completed, the entire mall will be dedicated to clinical services. The goal was to move the less intensive services off the EMMC campus, to create a healthcare facility that’s easy to get to, with plenty of parking, and many services under one roof.”
Affiliated Healthcare Systems is a subsidiary of Eastern Maine Healthcare, providing support services to some 2,000 customers throughout New England. Those services include medical supplies and equipment, debt collection, genetic testing, pharmaceuticals, medical transcription, workplace drug testing, and employee assistance programs.
Theeman has been with Eastern Maine Healthcare since 1976. Originally from Lubec, he graduated from the Warton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, and received his MBA in hospital administration from the University of Florida. Affiliated Healthcare Systems was established in 1982.
“We were a tiny company then, with Eastern Maine Medical Center as our only client,” he says. “Now we have annual revenues in excess of $85 million, and [out comes the head cheerleader] 560 fabulous employees.”
One of the most successful services Affiliated Healthcare offers its clients is the management of medical supplies. “Using hospital space for inventory storage is expensive,” Theeman says. “We can offer storage at $10 a square foot instead of the $150 it costs a medical facility. Recently we helped a client move $150,000 worth of inventory out of their warehouse. To them, it was like we were writing them a check.”
Theeman is always looking for ways for Affiliated to solve more customers’ problems. Though still engaged primarily in health-related services, including a year-old service providing medical products via the Internet, the company has found new clients in unexpected places. This, according to Theeman, includes the city of Bangor: Fail to pay a parking ticket, and one of the fabulous employees from Affiliated’s collections department is likely to call.
