The St. Andrews Hospital and Healthcare Center emergency department will close next year and the center, in Boothbay Harbor, will cease to provide inpatient care.
The July 2012 edition of The Current, the employee newsletter of Lincoln County Healthcare, outlines the changes, which are subject to approval by the MaineHealth board of trustees.
The emergency department will be replaced by an urgent care center. The transition means St. Andrews will no longer be a licensed hospital, effective April 2013.
Lincoln County Healthcare expects the changes to result in the loss of approximately 50 jobs, although it expects to offer jobs elsewhere in the system to more than half of those 50 employees.
The organization expects about 100 employees to continue working at the St. Andrews campus.
The transformation of the 24/7 emergency department into an urgent care center appears to be the most dramatic of the changes.
The urgent care center will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the summer and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. the rest of the year. Patients in need of emergency, or life-saving, care, will be transported by ambulance to “the closest appropriate facility,” usually the Miles Memorial Hospital emergency department.
The majority of services currently available at or through the St. Andrews campus, including basic diagnostic imaging, home health and hospice, physician practices, St. Andrews Village and wellness and rehabilitation, will remain available.
The newsletter cites fiscal considerations, demographic trends and other data as contributing factors to the decision.
A more detailed article will appear online and in the Aug. 2 edition of The Lincoln County News.
