Interesting Facts About Maine’s Hospitals

Did You Know...

  • There are currently 36 hospitals serving communities throughout Maine, including 33 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, 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: Northern Light Blue Hill Hospital, Bridgton Hospital, Calais Regional Hospital, Northern Light C. A. Dean Hospital, Down East Community Hospital, Houlton Regional Hospital, LincolnHealth, Northern Light Mayo Hospital, Millinocket Regional Hospital, Mount Desert Island Hospital, Penobscot Valley Hospital, Redington-Fairview General Hospital, Rumford Hospital, Northern Light Sebasticook Valley Hospital, Stephens Memorial Hospital and Waldo County General Hospital.
  • It is the philosophy and practice of the hospitals in Maine that medically necessary healthcare services rendered by the hospital should be available to all individuals regardless of their ability to pay. In 2016, Maine hospitals provided more than $570 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.

  2019 2018 Change
Discharges 126,000 130,000 -3%
Inpatient Surgeries 38,000 30,000 0%
Outpatient Surgeries 106,000 105,000 0.1%
Births 11,611 11,748 1.3%