Interesting Facts About Maine’s Hospitals

Did You Know...

• There are currently 39 hospitals serving communities throughout Maine, including 36 non-profit general acute care hospitals, two private psychiatric hospitals, and one acute rehabilitation hospital, providing more than 22,000 full-time equivalent jobs. All are members of MHA.

• In addition, there are several government-run hospitals in Maine—the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor and Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta—and one federal facility, the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Togus.

• About 650 citizens serve as hospital Trustees.

• One hospital - Mayo Regional in Dover-Foxcroft - is organized through a regional Hospital Administrative District.  One hospital, Cary Medical Center, is owned by the municipality.

• Maine hospitals have focused on maintaining access to services and retaining physicians by employing more than 40 percent of the physicians in Maine, representing hundreds of practices. This trend away from privately owned practices has been driven by poor physician reimbursement coupled with a desire by physicians to improve their lifestyles.

• Since the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Program was established in 1998, 16 of Maine's hospitals have been approved as CAHs. The hospitals are: Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, Bridgton Hospital, Calais Regional Hospital, C. A. Dean Memorial Hospital, Down East Community Hospital, Houlton Regional Hospital, Mayo Regional Hospital, Millinocket Regional Hospital, Mount Desert Island Hospital, Penobscot Valley Hospital, Redington-Fairview General Hospital, Rumford Hospital, St. Andrews Hospital, Sebasticook Valley Health, Stephens Memorial Hospital and Waldo County General Hospital.

• It is the philosophy and practice of the hospitals in Maine that medically necessary health care servcies rendered by the hospital should be available to all individuals regardless of of their ability to pay. In 2009, Maine hospitals provided more than $333 million of uncompensated care to those who could not pay.

Utilization

New technology has allowed many procedures to be moved to the outpatient setting. This trend can be seen with the shift from inpatient surgeries to outpatient surgeries. Maine's health infrastructure makes hospitals the obvious setting for these outpatient services.