Portland-based MaineHealth will end inpatient labor and delivery services at MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta, Maine, effective Dec. 18, according to an Aug. 6 health system news release shared with Becker’s. Labor and delivery services will move to MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, Maine.
The board of trustees ratified the decision Aug. 6 after endorsements from the local board overseeing Lincoln Hospital and the MaineHealth Coastal Region Board.
Lincoln Hospital and Mid Coast Hospital will operate as one regional OB-GYN and certified nurse midwife team, according to the release. Lincoln Hospital will continue to provide prenatal consultations, antenatal testing, obstetrical ultrasounds, postpartum care, fertility services, lactation support, childbirth education and postpartum counseling, and plans to expand outpatient and surgical gynecologic services. Patients who prefer to deliver at MaineHealth Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport, Maine, or another hospital will be supported in transferring their obstetrical care.
Birth volumes at Lincoln Hospital have remained low and are expected to decline further, the release said. More than two-thirds of pregnant patients in Lincoln County already deliver at other hospitals, and the health system said it could not identify a staffing model capable of supporting a reliable 24-hour labor and delivery program despite sustained recruitment efforts.
“We pursued every reasonable path we could identify because this decision was never about whether labor and delivery matters,” MaineHealth CEO Andrew Mueller, MD, said in the release. “It came down to one responsibility: determining whether we could continue providing safe, reliable care for every mother and every baby, every day and every night.”
The board also committed to keeping all other labor and delivery programs across the health system open for the next two years and called on Maine’s next governor and Legislature to convene hospitals, clinicians and other stakeholders “to identify sustainable solutions for rural communities.”
MaineHealth operates nine hospitals and employs about 24,000 care team members.
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