“Take Me To Parkview” bumper stickers are a common sight in the Brunswick area. But with the impending closure of Parkview Adventist Medical Center’s emergency room and inpatient services on Thursday, patients may have fewer choices on where they’re taken.
Parkview Adventist Medical Center is filing for bankruptcy and its emergency department and acute inpatient care will cease operation at 8 p.m. Thursday.
“We’ve had substantial losses,” said Reynolds in an interview Tuesday with The Times Record, citing the volatility of health care costs. “Our finances just continued to deteriorate to the point where the board didn’t feel it was responsible to continue to provide services that we just cannot afford to do any more.”
Patient visits to Parkview have decreased with the closure of the Brunswick Naval Air Station and the loss of 5,000 people who worked there, said Reynolds.
“When you have less people in the market, you have less procedures, less X-rays,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds also cited Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of Medicaid expansion and the uncertainties over the federal Affordable Care Act as factors that impacted hospital revenue.
“This whole industry has changed, and really has been turned upside down,” Reynolds said.
Inpatient and emergency services will be handled at Mid Coast’s campus in east Brunswick.
“A lot of our costs are in the acute area,” Reynolds said, specifically in intensive care, medicalsurgical and emergency departments.
Parkview will still have physician practices and a walk-in clinic, as well as radiology, oncology, hematology, and physical, occupational and speech therapies, among other services.
“There’s been a lot of distraction, I think, in the Brunswick area with having two entities. I think that distraction’s going to go away, which makes it a more vibrant health care community,” said Reynolds. “I think we’re going to take confusion out of the market.”
The new arrangement will be named Mid Coast-Parkview Health System.
Mid Coast Health Services President and CEO Lois Skillings stopped short of stating Mid Coast was outright purchasing Parkview, noting that any purchase would be dependent on approval by the bankruptcy court.
It was unclear how much Mid Coast would be paying to acquire Parkview assets.
Parkview is carrying about $14 million worth of debt, and how that is handled will be determined by the courts, said Reynolds.
Lewiston-based Central Maine Health Care had a management agreement with Parkview for seven years. However, Reynolds said that partnering with Mid Coast was a more “viable option” for Parkview’s patients and staff.
“We were about two things in this process,” said Reynolds. “The first thing was patient care. The second was job security for our employees. When you’re talking about an entity that’s 30 minutes west, I don’t know how much job security is in that.”
In a press release, Mid Coast stated that there will be no jobs lost as a result of the arrangement with Parkview.
Speaking later in the day, Mid Coast spokesman Steven Trockman confirmed that “all full- and part-time employees will be offered positions immediately,” which includes support staff employed by Parkview.
There were more than 8,000 visits to Parkview’s emergency room in 2014, according to Reynolds, and eight to 10 patients per day who were admitted as inpatients.
There will be no infrastructure changes at Mid Coast as a result of the merger, said Skillings.
Intensive care, emergency, and other areas at Parkview may be renovated to aid in expanding other services, said Reynolds.
Some services at Mid Coast may be transfered to Parkview, said Skillings.
Parkview and Mid Coast notified their staff and their emergency medical service partners of the ER’s closure Tuesday morning. Staff were not made available for comment on Tuesday.
Brunswick Fire Chief Kenneth Brillant said his department had been “quite fortunate” to have two emergency rooms in town.
Until now, many patients could chose between being transported to Parkview or Mid Coast, though a person unfamiliar with the area would often be transported to the closest emergency room.
“Both emergency rooms offered the same level of care,” said Brillant.
Brillant said the short notice of the emergency room’s closure won’t be a problem for his department.
“We just have to explain to patients that they have to go to Mid Coast,” Brillant said. “It is perfect? No, but we’re thrown curveballs all the time.”
For the first 15 days following the emergency room’s closure, an ambulance will be stationed at Parkview’s emergency department, in case someone arrives at the ER who didn’t know about the closure.
Parkview has earned a loyal following among patients in the Brunswick area, many of which took to social media to express their sadness at the announcement.
Yvette Griffin said she was treated at Parkview’s ER in recent weeks, and on Tuesday had returned to the hospital for a rehab session.
Speaking outside Parkview on Tuesday, Griffin said the care she received was “very good,” and said she was surprised to learn that the emergency room was closing.
“I’ve been coming here for years. I’ve always had very good service,” she said, and was concerned with the possibility of having to go to an unfamiliar place for emergency care. “I hope they don’t close it.”
Skillings said the spiritual mission at Parkview will continue, and that the partnership would put the hospitals in a position to better meet the community’s health care needs.
“We’re not closing Parkview,” said Skillings.
Those experiencing a medical emergency should call 911. Local emergency services will be provided at Mid Coast Hospital at 123 Medical Center Drive, near Cook’s Corner in Brunswick.
For non-emergency medical needs, patients can visit the walk-in clinic at Parkview (open daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) or the Mid Coast walk-in clinic downtown at Brunswick Station (open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday).
jswinconeck@timesrecord.com
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