BIDDEFORD — In December, Southern Maine Health Care Auxiliary paid off its $90,000 pledge to help the hospital privatize the majority of its inpatient rooms. Just over a month later, the initiative has been a success, according to Leslie Roberts, a spokeswoman for SMHC.

“We were able to renovate most of them,” Roberts said of the hospital’s inpatient rooms on Monday.

Now, whenever possible, patients who need a room at SMHC’s Biddeford and Sanford medical centers can enjoy one sans company.

“In Biddeford, we have done the renovations to enable us to convert semi-private rooms to private rooms by removing one bed and bringing in seating and a daybed for family,” she said.

However, added Roberts, the hospital has made sure some private rooms can be converted back to semi-private ones for when the need for beds is exceptionally high – as it is right now.

“There are times, like now, when the flu season is at its peak, and it’s really busy, and we can’t offer a private room,” she said. “We sometimes need to use those rooms as semi-private.”

The Special Care Unit at SMHC’s Biddeford Medical Center boasts nine private rooms, said Roberts, while the Birthing Suite has eight and the hospital’s surgical units have 11. There are an additional 41 rooms that can be either private or semi-private, depending on the hospital’s needs.

At SMHC’s Sanford Medical Center, she said, the Special Care Unit has seven private rooms, while 17 semi-private rooms make up the Medical Surgical Unit.

Roberts said that the benefits of private rooms greatly outweigh the costs associated with them. Private rooms provide a more comfortable environment for patients, she said.

According to a Dec. 11 press release from SMHC, private rooms also lower the risk of infection, and there are several studies that support this claim. A 2007 article published in the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine concluded that private rooms help limit nosocomial, or hospital-acquired, infections, as well as the transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

Roberts also said that if SMHC adds inpatient rooms to any of its facilities, those rooms would be private.

“There’s no additional charge for a private rooms,” she said. “It’s our standard unless the need for beds

is high.”

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.