An under-the-radar healthcare hero hides in plain sight

When you walk into Portsmouth Regional Hospital’s Center for Rehabilitation and Wellness, you walk into a world of calm, physical restoration and healing. Physical, occupational, speech, massage therapists and therapy assistants work intently — each with a laser focus on their patients’ return to activities of daily living and wellness.

Behind the scenes of this efficient and empathic team is Mark Mailloux — a 29-year veteran of Portsmouth Regional Hospital and a physical therapist by profession. Mark took the helm as Director of PRH’s outpatient rehabilitation services in 2017. Since then, he has consistently raised the bar for his team while continuing to build a cohesive group of colleagues. Mark’s management style is to put his employees first and support their goals and development, all while keeping the patients’ needs paramount. He prefers to “work behind the scenes” — putting the spotlight on his employees rather than taking center stage.

“My ‘why’ is all about relationships — creating a supportive atmosphere that allows employees to be heard and learn what motivates them, makes them happy — so that they, in turn, can spend their time focused on our patients and being able to affect a positive change in that patients’ lives,” said Mark.

When COVID-19 challenged the operations of outpatient services such as Rehabilitation in the spring of 2020, Mark worked with his staff at this very stressful time and found ways to keep them busy as screeners, sitters, and more until Portsmouth Regional Hospital resumed normal operations.

“I was never more impressed by HCA than as I was at the height of COVID-19. The way they rallied around their employees and supported them was second to none,” said Mark.

Mark’s effective leadership and quiet confidence has not gone unnoticed. During the height of COVID-19, Mark was asked to assume the interim leadership of Portsmouth Regional Hospital’s Occupational Health Services department. “Occupational Health has been in a transition phase and Mark was identified as the perfect leader to help build and mentor the Occupational Health team and transform the department into a collaborative unit that serves a multitude of organizations on the Seacoast,” said Whitney Fenyak, vice president of operations at PRH. Typical of Mark, his response to this new challenge was — “it’s so important to give back and pay it forward.”

Mark’s wife Stacey is an inpatient physical therapist at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. “Mark is not only a leader at PRH, he is a leader at the State level as president of the New Hampshire chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association,” she said.

Mark and Stacey have three children — two of whom have chosen similar professional paths. Their daughter, Emily, is a speech therapist and works PRN at PRH. Their son, Nathaniel, is also a physical therapist on Long Island.