An artist's rendition of the proposed new $312 million consolidated MaineGeneral Medical Center in North Augusta upon its 2015 completion. Courtesy of: MaineGeneral Medical Center

New facility seen necessary to recruit physicians

Augusta — MaineGeneral Medical Center’s decision to build a $312 million consolidated regional hospital represents a huge investment in North Augusta, assuming it is approved by state regulators.

Hospital officials say they will be much better positioned to recruit physicians, at a time of a national physician shortage, with one, state-of-the-art facility instead of two aging hospitals -- one in Augusta, the other in Waterville -- 20 miles apart that doctors shuttle between.

It will also mean the medical center will move out of its sprawling 265,000-square-foot building on East Chestnut and Arsenal streets in Augusta, a place where there’s been a hospital “for at least 100 years,” according to local historians.

According to the medical center's announcement upon filing a Certificate of Need application with the state Dec. 21, 2009, if the application is approved by June of this year, "construction would begin in the fall of 2011 and the new hospital would open in 2015."

What becomes of the Augusta building, and the East Side neighborhood surrounding it, even though it’s five years away, has officials pondering both good and bad scenarios.

“There’s obviously many concerns,” said Darek Grant, newly elected city councilor in Ward 2, which includes the hospital complex. “On the one hand, we have a large structure that will become vacant and waterfront parking lots that could be used in a better manner.

“We all have our fingers crossed for the Arsenal project. Maybe we could see some sort of revitalization on the East Side that would go hand in hand with the downtown. It could dramatically change the makeup of the ward, for good or for bad. It’ll probably be something I’ll be dealing with in my three years on the council.”

MaineGeneral officials will present their project to the state's Certificate of Need team and the public Thursday, Jan. 21, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, at the Augusta Civic Center.

Following the presentation, at 1 p.m. at the civic center, the CON team will hold a public hearing on the MaineGeneral plan, at which time the public will have an opportunity to weigh in for or against the project.

Similar presentations and public hearings will also be held in Waterville on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at the Grandeur Sun Banquet and Conference Center, 6 Jefferson St. MaineGeneral will present its side of the project at 10:30 a.m. and a public hearing will follow at 1 p.m.

Snow dates are Thursday, Jan. 27, for Augusta and Wednesday, Jan, 27, for Waterville.

Members of the public also will have 30 days after the public hearings to comment in writing on the project to the Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services, 41 Anthony Ave., Augusta, ME 04330.

Phyllis Powell, director of the Certificate of Need team in the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, said her staff has 180 days from the Dec. 21 filing of MaineGeneral’s application to make a recommendation to her department's commissioner, Brenda Harvey.

Harvey will make the final decision on the application. Powell said she expects that decision would be made in June.

“This is a very large and complex application,” said Powell.

The CON team will consider: whether the applicant is fit, willing and able; whether there is a public need for the project; whether the applicant has established that need; the community impact; how the project fits in with the state health plan; the new technology involved; any alternatives; the economic feasibility; and whether the project will provide improvements in health-care quality and outcomes.

Besides closing its Augusta hospital, MaineGeneral plans to close its Seton campus. It would invest an additional $10 million into its Thayer campus in Waterville, and that would become a full-service outpatient hospital with an emergency department.

The new consolidated inpatient hospital with an emergency department would be built on 60 acres of land next to the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care on Old Belgrade Road. The two facilities would occupy a 160-acre tract owned by MaineGeneral.

The new hospital would have a total of 226 beds, as compared to the current number of 287 beds at the Augusta and Thayer hospitals combined. All of the rooms would be private, single-occupancy to minimize infections and make stays more pleasant for patients and their families.

Some 104 full-time jobs would be eliminated in the transition. But Chuck Hays, president and chief executive officer of MaineGeneral Medical Center, said all of those job reductions would be absorbed through attrition. He said the medical center has an annual turnover rate of about 300 positions within its total workforce of more than 3,500 employees.

The hospital is working with state, federal and municipal officials to see that Exit 113 on Interstate 95 is reconfigured to allow for direct access to the new medical complex. Improvements to Exit 112 with access to Civic Center Drive are expected to follow.

“We serve 88 communities,” said Gail Evans, senior vice president for marketing and strategy at MaineGeneral Medical Center. “This is the region’s resource. We’re very lucky to have a highway running right by it.”

Evans said the medical center is going to invest $100,000 a year into the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program’s transportation service for new bus runs between Augusta and Waterville and the new hospital.

“There will be enhanced transportation within Augusta and Waterville to the hospital,” said Evans.

Six years ago, in 2004, MaineGeneral’s board considered building a consolidated hospital in Sidney, shutting down the Augusta and Waterville hospitals. But a massive outpouring of community protest — including more than 19,000 petition signatures and petitions from city councils in both Augusta and Waterville — convinced the board to drop the Sidney plan in June of that year. It was then, however, the plan for the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care was born.

“Even then, we knew there was a shortage of specialists and primary care doctors, and it’s gotten worse since then,” said Evans.

And the cancer center has proven to be “a remarkable success,” said Hays.

MaineGeneral treats 20 percent more cancer patients than it did before the Alfond center was built, and it has recruited three new cancer specialists, along with two new doctors who support them, to the Augusta area.

MaineGeneral officials said that, in comparison to what it currently costs to run two hospitals in Augusta and Waterville, the cost of operating the one proposed consolidated hospital will save them $7.1 million a year.

“This is the plan that will save the most jobs, because we’re now losing patients to Portland and Bangor and Boston,” said Evans. “Outpatient care is an area that is growing, so we believe the jobs will grow back in Waterville. We believe we would put health care and jobs in much more jeopardy if we just did nothing.”

Scott Bullock, president and chief executive officer of MaineGeneral Health, has said, “With two campuses, MaineGeneral physicians can be on-call twice as often as their colleagues in other parts of the country. That puts MaineGeneral at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting and retaining top professionals.”

“A new, consolidated regional hospital will greatly improve our ability to attract top doctors,” Bullock said.

Hays said a Maine Development Foundation study found that MaineGeneral could be providing $64 million more in health care in Kennebec County “if we had the physicians to provide that. So we will grow.”

Hays said he doesn’t think all the doctor’s offices currently clustered around the Augusta hospital will move up to North Augusta to be near the new hospital. “We want the physicians to be distributed out in the community,” he said. “We don’t want them all in the hospital. Specialists may have to be near the hospital.”

Hays said MaineGeneral will continue to maintain its system of local health centers in Winthrop, Gardiner, Augusta, Oakland and Fairfield. The Family Medicine Institute will remain in its current location on East Chestnut Street.

Another benefit of the construction of the new hospital, said Hays, is that it will create an estimated 352 construction jobs and infuse $266 million into the regional economy at a time when the economy needs a lift.

“We’re working with the city of Augusta and the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce to develop a plan for the east side of the river,” said Hays. “Part of the struggle is to get the Certificate of Need so that developers will know that this is going to happen. We really want to get this (property) back on the tax rolls.”

As a hospital, MaineGeneral pays no property taxes. “We own the waterfront all the way to the Arsenal,” said Hays. “There would have to be some structural changes in this building to make it attractive to developers. It really could be a big boost to the area.”

Augusta City Manager William Bridgeo agreed with Hays. “The city looks forward to working closely with MaineGeneral,” he said. “I view the upside to be all the riverfront property that is now used for parking. Impulsively, I might say that maybe the answer is to demolish the hospital building and do something really exciting with the parking areas.”

Bridgeo said he expects the city will convene a committee this spring to develop “a comprehensive plan for the East Side from the Arsenal to the third bridge,” taking in the recently demolished site of the former American Tissue plant.

“I’m very confident that the hospital is going to work with us,” said Bridgeo. “Admittedly, we are in a terrible economic time at the moment. But I’m more optimistic than some on this. We can’t lose sight of how vitally important the new hospital is for the whole region.”

Dr. Kathleen Petersen, an Augusta obstetrician who opposed the Sidney hospital idea in 2004, said, “I’m totally in favor of this latest plan. It will be state-of-the-art. New physicians will come to a better hospital. I think it’s our best option.”

Asked if she would move her office to be closer to the new hospital, Petersen said, “Honestly, I don’t know if we would move our office. I don’t think that distance is much of an issue for us. Probably, it’s more so for the Waterville-based obstetricians.”

Rep. Anna Blodgett, D-Augusta, whose legislative district includes the current hospital, said, “It’s prime property. I always think of condos and apartments. I’m hoping to have some of that conversation soon. All of those doctors’ offices will follow, too, I’m sure. A lot of that is good housing. It’ll make a huge difference in that area, that’s for sure.”