(Photo courtesy of Northern Light Acadia Hospital)
The construction of a new pediatric wing at a Maine psychiatric hospital could get a $2 million boost from a funding package that is currently making its way through Congress.
The Bangor Daily News reported Aug. 2 that the money would help pay for the ongoing expansion at Northern Light Acadia Hospital, estimated to cost $49 million.
The project will add 50 single-occupancy rooms with pediatric beds and convert all the hospital's double-occupancy rooms to single-occupancy rooms.
That change would allow Acadia — one of Maine's two private psychiatric hospitals — to use all 100 of its beds at the same time, addressing a growing need for psychiatric care that has become more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Daily News.
The $2 million is part of a draft funding bill for the coming federal fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, noted the office of Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The U.S. House and Senate still need to vote on the funding.
Stephen King Donation Gives Hospital Boost
The announcement came on the heels of a $1 million donation by horror author (and Maine resident) Stephen King and his wife Tabitha's foundation in July to support the work at Acadia Hospital.
"A donation [of] this magnitude is quite spectacular to help us with our financial goal, but more importantly, to me, it was validation that this project matters in the community," said Scott Oxley, senior vice president of Northern Light Health (NLH) and president of Acadia Hospital.
With the donation, the hospital plans to construct a new pediatric wing, expand geriatric care and research, and strengthen the hospital's workforce.
But the Daily News learned that NLH, the facility's parent organization, still has a way to go before it can reach its overall fundraising goal for the project's construction.
Some $10 million of Northern Light's $15 million "Acadia for All" campaign will support the new pediatric wing's construction, the newspaper noted. With the King's help, the agency had secured about $1.4 million toward that goal as of July 29, according to Christina Caron, director of philanthropy, marketing, and communications for Northern Light.
Despite not yet having secured all the needed funds, Acadia Hospital broke ground on the new two-story facility on its existing Stillwater Avenue campus in April. Construction is expected to be finished in December 2023 and open to patients in January 2024, said Northern Light spokesperson Karen Cashman.
Until then, the hospital has remained fully operational and able to serve the community during the work.
Expansion to Include More Psychiatric Bed Space
Though Acadia Hospital is licensed for 100 beds, Northern Light has said it cannot use all of them because it is unsafe to place that many patients together in the same room. Now, with the expansion, the hospital will have more flexibility in providing better safety for patients while continuing to expand the number of psychiatric beds in Maine.
Oxley told the Bangor news source in April that the state had only 330 beds for those who need psychiatric care — spaces that tend to fill quickly — leading to a backlog of people waiting in hospital emergency rooms to get the care they need.
He added that the hospital's capital campaign was created after officials realized the lack of behavioral and mental health services in the state.
"We recognized that a great light has been shined upon mental health services and the importance to do more in the community," Oxley said.
In 2021, there were 30 patients waiting for psychiatric care in Maine's emergency rooms on average each day, according to Kara Hay, chairperson of the Northern Light Acadia Hospital Board of Trustees. That number rose to about 50 patients in the first quarter of 2022, she said.
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