Federal Loan to Help Hospital Expansion

MACHIAS, Maine — The Down East Community Hospital in Machias will launch a $1.5 million capital campaign to help fund the expansion of its emergency department. This campaign comes after the hospital was awarded a $4 million federal loan, according to Bangor Daily News.

The new addition will triple the size of the current emergency department, making it 7,350 square feet, said Julie Hixson, a hospital spokeswoman, in a statement released on Nov. 18. The U.S Department of Agriculture Rural Development Community Facilities program chose three health care and community organizations to receive a total of $10 million in funding, with Down East Community Hospital being one of them. Among the other winners are the Independence Advocates of Maine, which will use the funds to renovate their facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities, and Downeast Horizons, which will use the funds to provide a day program for adults and children with developmental disabilities.

Construction on the Down East Community Hospital is planned to start in the spring of 2016, with construction being completed by fall 2017, according to Bangor Daily News. The emergency department will remain open to patients throughout the expansion process, according to Hixson. The funding will allow the hospital to make it’s current six-bed emergency room into a larger department, containing nine, private rooms, which will include trauma and psychiatric rooms, according to Hixson. The funding will also give the hospital funds to create a new entrance area and waiting room, a larger triage area and improved staff and nursing stations.

Down East Community Hospital, which was built in 1964, is the only hospital in a 60-mile radius of Machias, and although it has had updates throughout the years, the hospital is not equipped to handle the amount of patients that are treated. According to the hospital, 9,000 patients are seen in the emergency room each year. “Our community needs and deserves an emergency department that will better accommodate current volume and improve patient privacy and comfort. We are building a future to provide the absolute best emergency care available in our region,” said Dennis Welsh, CEO of Down East Community Hospital, in a statement.

United States Senators Susan Collins and Angus King supported the federal loans, according to a statement. They saw the federal loans “as an important investment in Maine’s health care and social service providers that will empower them to improve their facilities and strengthen their ability to provide high-quality services to Maine people.”