ROCKPORT — Pen Bay Medical Center is set to mark the end of interior work on a three-year project that will more than double the size of its Emergency Department.

On Wednesday, August 7, the hospital opens the new addition and direct ambulance traffic to its regular entrance. Ambulances have been routed to a temporary entrance on and off since the project started.

All that remains is to install an exterior canopy over the pedestrian entrance to the ED. This will require patients to use a temporary entrance to register for care. This temporary entrance will be well marked to avoid confusion.

The Emergency Department expansion project, funded by local donations and an investment from MaineHealth, nearly doubled the size of the ED from 9,000 to 15,000 square feet and increased the number of exam rooms from 13 to 25. The updated space also features a three-room behavioral health suite, new medication room, clean supply and soiled utility rooms.

“We offer excellent care, but our facilities required significant upgrades to ensure that we can continue to provide the very best care for our patients in crisis,” said Nancy Jackson, RN, director of Emergency Services at Pen Bay and Waldo, in a news release. “This project has given us the space and tools to do that for years to come.”

The project was necessary for several reasons, including advancements in emergency medicine that require more equipment and time but also lead to better outcomes for patients, especially those suffering a stroke or heart attack. There has also been a significant increase in the severity of cases requiring emergency care in recent years, as well as an increase in behavioral health cases, according to PBMC.

Diane Hynes, RN, a charge nurse who has worked in the Pen Bay Emergency Department since it opened in 1975, was on the committee reviewing the design. She brought a wealth of experience, having been a part of two other emergency department expansions during her career, including one at the former Knox County General Hospital in Rockland and at Pen Bay in the late 1990s.

“In 1997, we used the wide-open space inside the Owls Head Transportation Museum to mock up the design using tape on the floor and cardboard boxes for furniture,” said Hynes. “That really helped us fine tune the design.”

Much has changed in the years since. Pen Bay was named a stroke center, for example, and that has required additional equipment and a more time-intensive response to patients who present with stroke symptoms.

But the biggest change has been in the reason people come to the Emergency Department. While the number of patients seeking care has held relatively steady over the years – PBMC admitted 22,240 patients in 2003 and 23,653 in 2018 – more patients are arriving with severe medical and behavioral health issues.

“In 2003, only 20 percent of our patients were categorized as high acuity,” Mark Eggena, MD, PhD, the chief medical officer for Pen Bay and Waldo. “For the last few years, it’s been 60 percent or more.”

High acuity patients typically require longer stays in the Emergency Department, which results in less turnover and fewer available exam rooms at any one time.

“At times we have had as many as 10 or more patients receiving care in the hallway, which offers no privacy and makes an already stressful situation more challenging,” Dr. Eggena said. “Expanding to 27 exam rooms will alleviate this.”

Dr. Eggena also noted an increase in behavioral health patients related to the ongoing opioid crisis.

“Of the 27 exam rooms that we’ll have after the upgrade, six will be dedicated behavioral health exam rooms that are designed to provide the unique and specialized care these patients need,” he said.

The Emergency Department upgrade is part of the Campaign for Coastal Health, a $21.5 million capital campaign that also funded the construction of the new Health Center on the Pen Bay campus. The Health Center, which brings together most of the hospital’s primary care practices under one roof, opened in December of 2020.

“For me, what makes this project so incredibly exciting is that this is the community’s emergency department,” said Donna Kessler, an emergency department tech who joined Pen Bay almost 20 years ago. “I can’t thank the donors to the capital campaign enough.”

A number of local businesses have supported the campaign with major donations, including Allen Agency, Camden National Bank, Horch Roofing, and Viking Lumber. Another major donor, O’Hara Corporation, designated its donation specifically for the Emergency Department. Other local donors included CedarWorks and The First National Bank. Early foundation contributors include the Sunshine Lady Foundation, the Libra Foundation, the Davis Family Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the Fisher Foundation.

In addition, care team members across the organization donated more than $500,000 to the capital campaign that raised money for the project.

Pen Bay Medical Center

Pen Bay Medical Center is part of MaineHealth, a not-for-profit integrated health system consisting of nine local hospital systems, a comprehensive behavioral healthcare network, diagnostic services, home health agencies, and more than 1,600 employed and independent physicians working together through an Accountable Care Organization. With more than 19,000 employees, MaineHealth is the largest health system in northern New England and provides preventive care, diagnosis and treatment to 1.1 million residents in Maine and New Hampshire. For more information, please visit pbmc.org.