Entrance to Acadia Hospital.

Northern Light Health announced last week a proposed upgrade and expansion of Northern Light Acadia Hospital’s adult and pediatric inpatient services to help address the urgent, growing need for psychiatric care in Maine.  The project, which will create more private rooms at the 29-year-old facility, will improve statewide access to critically needed care at one of Maine’s two private psychiatric hospitals.

Acadia Hospital can serve more patients than it currently does within its existing number of licensed impatient beds.  However, the hospital cannot use all of its 100 beds due to the current configuration of the space.  “The majority of our inpatient beds are semi-private rooms with two beds per room.  This was a standard design for hospitals 30 years ago, but it no longer allows us to need the community need of today,” said John Campbell, MD., FANPA, vice president, senior physician executive, chief medical informatics officer at Acadia Hospital.

Some of Acadia Hospital’s patients require a single room resulting in one bed in that room being unusable.  Dr. Campbell explains that every day at the Hospital, between 20 and 25 beds are taken “out of service” for this reason.  “This lack of available beds places undue strain on emergency departments which are often the only alternative for emerging psychiatric care.  Psychiatric patients can sometimes spend days in emergency rooms waiting for beds.

In March of 2020, Acadia Hospital saw a nearly 50% spike from the previous year in the number of psychiatric consultations provided to its 17 partnering Maine hospital emergency rooms for crises, including suicidal behavior or attempts.

The design and planning process is underway, which includes Acadia Hospital seeking regulatory approval from the State of Maine.  Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2022.

“Expanding access to care for some of Maine’s sickest patients isn’t a local issue.  Sixty-three percent of Acadia Hospital’s inpatient admissions are from outside Penobscot County,” says Scott Oxley, Acadia Hospital president in a press release issued last week.  “With the demand for inpatient psychiatric care increasing and our patients’ needs becoming more complex, now is the right time to move forward.”