As a not-for-profit healthcare system dedicated to the Bath-Brunswick-Topsham community, Mid Coast–Parkview Health’s mission is to care for our community by promoting wellness, delivering outstanding healthcare, and enhancing quality of life. Mid Coast–Parkview Health is more than a healthcare organization; it is an institution deeply rooted in the lives of our patients and community members.

We don’t think of ourselves as a business. Rather, we consider ourselves as part of the safety net for this region; part of the community infrastructure like our schools and fire department, Emergency Medical Services, and law enforcement partners, providing care to anyone in need. In everything we do, we seek to provide better care, improve health, and lower costs. This is why we directly oppose the state Certificate of Need application for Central Maine Healthcare Corporation (CMHC) to build a surgical center in Topsham.

It is important to note that our opposition to this project is not about targeting CMHC or concern about competition. We recognize the importance of CMHC in providing high-quality care to the people in the Lewiston-Auburn community and wish them success in their endeavors in their region of Maine because we know the people of Central Maine count on them for their care.

The reason we are opposed to this project is that the services that CMHC proposes for the Topsham facility will duplicate the range of services that are already available at Mid Coast Hospital and would ultimately drive up the cost of healthcare in this region of Maine. It would also erode access to quality healthcare services in this community available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. Each service outlined in their application – urology, ear, nose and throat, breast care, gastroenterology, orthopedics – is already provided on an outpatient basis just down the road at Mid Coast Hospital, which is nationally recognized for providing high-quality care at costs lower than the statewide average. We have confirmed our capacity to absorb any organic growth and need in this region long into the future.

Duplicating services that are already available, and diverting people and resources away from our community, will disrupt healthcare delivery in this region. The loss of patients and surgical procedures that CMHC intends to siphon from Mid Coast Hospital will force our system to cover its fixed costs by either cutting services or charging more for other services to make up for revenue lost to Lewiston. If approved, the project would have a substantial negative impact on Mid Coast–Parkview Health, which would result in higher overall health care costs for the Midcoast region and end up costing more for local businesses and patients. This is why many of our region’s largest employers including Bowdoin College and Bath Iron Works also oppose this project. While on the surface it may seem that competition would bring down costs, this economic model only works in large population centers where there are enough people to support the fixed infrastructure costs of a comprehensive regional healthcare system like Mid Coast–Parkview Health.

We soundly believe that a strong healthcare system in this community is essential to growing new business, bringing new families, and attracting people to live, work, and play in the Midcoast area. Anything that would have a negative impact on our local economy threatens this economic goal for our region. The appeal of our area in attracting individuals and businesses could be compromised.

Here in Midcoast Maine, we already worked to right-size healthcare to meet the needs of the 80,000 people we serve by bringing together Mid Coast Hospital with Parkview Adventist

Medical Center. We recognized that we could be a stronger healthcare system if we worked together, resulting in cost savings of $8 million every year since. One big reason for our lower costs is the fact that we have already eliminated the duplication of services in this community.

While CMHC’s application labels its proposal a low-cost option, it is shortsighted and fails to recognize the impact on existing healthcare services. We have made a lot of progress in our community toward reducing healthcare costs and avoiding needless overhead to the healthcare infrastructure, and it is essential that we maintain that progress.

As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has been the most recent challenge to our nation’s healthcare system. Mid Coast–Parkview Health has handled the pandemic with the health of our community as its top priority, standing ready as a critical care hospital. Since the onset of the pandemic, Mid Coast Hospital has tested more than 6,000 local individuals for the virus, stepping up to this community need.

Our health system also established a COVID-19 Information Line, reconfigured our outpatient offices for maximum social distancing, and implemented telehealth visits at the Walk-In Clinic and all Mid Coast Medical Group practices. In May, Mid Coast Hospital resumed time-sensitive care, implementing heightened safety measures to protect patients and staff, to ensure our patients received the care they need. In a time when tens of millions of Americans are unemployed, Mid Coast–Parkview Health has retained 100 percent of its over 2100 employees at full pay through this crisis. The estimated financial impact of this pandemic at Mid Coast–Parkview Health is more than $50 million loss this year. Thankfully, because of our strong financial foundation, we will recover and work through this together.

The people of the Bath-Brunswick-Topsham region rely on us and the support we provide as a strong community healthcare system. Raising overall healthcare costs and decreasing quality and access to healthcare would be a giant step backward for our community. This is why we oppose the CON application for CMHC to build a surgical center in Topsham.