Brunswick, Maine – Mid Coast Hospital filed a Certificate of Need (CON) application with the State of Maine yesterday in response to the CON filed earlier this monthby Lewiston-based Central Maine Healthcare, which hopes totake control of the Parkview Adventist Medical Center in Brunswick.Mid Coast’s application calls for the consolidation of healthcare services in the mid coast region, and an expenditure of $10 million for the creation and endowment of the Parkview Health Trust, which will support efforts to provide health and wellness services within the communities served by Mid Coast andParkview. This proposal outlines how to reduce healthcare costs by $250 million over the next decade; improve access, coordination, and quality of care; redirect resources toward prevention and population health; and eliminate the significant waste associated with maintaining two acute care facilities.
Lois Skillings, President and CEO of Mid Coast Health Services commented on Mid Coast’s reasons for submitting a competing proposal. “We are facing a time when rising healthcare costs are breaking the backs of local, state, and federal budgets. CMHC’s plan will drive up our healthcare costs. In essence, their plan shifts resourcesaway from important priorities such as disease prevention, health promotion, and primary care. It makes it difficult for our business community to be competitive. It is not in the best interest of the people of this region, especially at a point in our history when healthcare experts around the country are recommending that there be fewer hospitals. CMHC’s proposal represents a continuation of the type of flawed thinking that is no longer sustainable.”
Skillings, whose clinical background is as an emergency room nurse, believes that it is time for the two Brunswick hospitals to heal the long divide and come together. “As a healthcare provider and someone who has lived in this community all my life, I am very sorry about what has happened in the past between Mid Coast and Parkview. This is a new opportunity for all of us to look at a very different landscape and a new way of delivering healthcare. Ours is the smallest region in the northeast trying to support two acute care hospitals, and it makes sense that we would put forth an alternative proposal which calls us to consolidate care so that we are able to maintain high-quality, local care.”
Mid Coast’s proposal, a 900-page document, examines the issue of need and outlines how CMHC’s proposal to take over PAMC is unnecessary. It illustrates why CMHC’s proposal will drive up the cost of healthcare and trigger a medical arms race in the mid coast community that will ultimately weaken healthcare in the region and provide no public benefit. Mid Coast believes that its competing plan is consistent with efforts to reform healthcare, consolidate services, and reduce the cost of healthcare to the community by $24.3 million per year.
John Morse, Chairman of Mid Coast Health Services’ board offered his perspective to the community. “Mid Coast is requesting that the State deny CMHC’s Certificate of Need application to provide acute care services outside Lewiston-Auburn, which is its primary service area, through the acquisition of Parkview. Mid Coast Health Services clearly demonstrates that there is absolutely no need for two hospitals in the mid coast region and our plan outlines how our region could achieve substantial savings and improvement to the health and wellbeing of the people who live and work in this area.” Mid Coast Hospital is one of the highest quality, lowest cost community hospitals in the state, and is in a strong financial position to provide for its community. Morse continued, “The community has been instrumental in our strategic planning effort, and our actions have helped us remain financially stable and solvent at a time when other hospitals have struggled.”
Morse and his colleagues hope that by working together rather than remaining divided, Mid Coast and Parkview could eliminate the costly duplication of many services, systems, facilities, and expensive equipment that currently exists in both hospitals, such as two intensive care units and two emergency departments. “Our community deserves to fully understand that if we eliminate redundancy, the people who live and work in this community could see a reversal to the trend of rising healthcare costs. Businesses would benefit. So would our families and neighbors.”
Mid Coast Hospital’s community-based Board of Directors envisions a modern-day delivery model, one that focuses on improving the overall health of the community as a whole. They stress the importance of focusing not only on healthcare for the sick, but also on disease prevention and promoting healthy lifestyle choices through wellness programs and essential primary and preventative care.
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