AUGUSTA, Maine — Eight Maine hospitals will get federal help to treat COVID-19 patients in their facilities.
President Biden announced the plan Tuesday morning as part of his address on how his administration will battle the pandemic as the omicron variant gains ground in the U.S. The president said the administration will purchase 500 million at-home rapid tests that can be shipped to Americans for free. With locations in Scarborough and Westbrook, Abbott Labs plans to make 70 million of those tests in January alone, with plans to scale further in the coming months.
In addition, he announced that Maine will receive eight Federal Emergency Management Agency ambulances and crews that can help transport patients from hospitals that get full to other facilities. On Tuesday, Maine hit a new record for COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the state: 387.
Governor Mills released details about the hospitals later in the afternoon.
The following hospitals will host the federal teams, which can be deployed to additional facilities throughout the state as needed:
- Maine Medical Center, Portland
- Southern Maine Health Care, Biddeford
- Franklin Memorial Hospital, Farmington
- Mid Coast Hospital, Brunswick
- Central Maine Medical Center, Lewiston
- MaineGeneral Medical Center, Augusta
- Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, Bangor
- St. Joseph Hospital, Bangor
Teams not actively transporting patients among facilities at any given time may additionally support hospital emergency departments with the care of COVID patients.
“Our EMS crews continue to work tirelessly to transport patients throughout the healthcare system to ensure that they receive the highest quality care, from the most appropriate facility within our state. These federal resources will assist in relieving the mounting pressure on our first responders by offsetting some movement of patients between facilities when it exceeds our existing capacity. This is particularly important as we continue to see increases in the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients,” J. Sam Hurley, director of Maine Emergency Medical Services, said in a news release from the governor's office. “We are grateful for these resources as we continue to care for all Mainers.”
“Transportation for patients is a critical component of decompressing our overly stressed hospitals,” Steven Michaud, president of the Maine Hospital Association, said in a news release. “A rare open bed does no good if we can’t get the patient to it in a timely manner. Increasing ambulance capacity is a big part of the solution to this crisis. We are grateful for the governor’s request to FEMA and for the positive response from the federal government.”
Maine will also receive 330 ventilators from the federal government. As of Tuesday, the state said 185 ventilators are currently available out of a base total of 310.
Maine's public health experts worry that the state's hospitals will be overrun if anyone gets sick after the holidays.
"Even if a small proportion of them are hospitalized, it still means more people will be hospitalized, and I don't know how we can fit any more people in the hospitals right now."
Seventeen National Guard members deployed to Saint Joseph’s Manor in Portland on Dec. 16, and 15 National Guard members deployed to CMMC to expand capacity at these “decompression sites” and allow hospitals to safely discharge more individuals, thereby relieving a bottleneck that will then allow hospitals to provide inpatient care for more people with COVID-19 and ensure delivery of health care for other serious health problems. This deployment will open an estimated 26 additional beds at Saint Joseph’s Manor and an estimated 16 “swing” beds at CMMC, the governor's office said in a release.
Nine members of the Guard will be deployed to Rumford Hospital in Rumford and Bridgton Hospital in Bridgton on Dec. 27, to support monoclonal antibody treatments. Maine’s request for additional doses of monoclonal antibodies was approved on Tuesday as well.
The full set of actions, which also include nursing facility waivers to open up beds for hospital discharges, distributing federally supplied ventilators to hospitals, and a federal COVID-19 Surge Response Team at Maine Medical Center in Portland, are expected to make an estimated 152 beds available. This estimate includes both COVID and non-COVID beds and is subject to change depending on changing circumstance and need across the health care system. The Maine National Guard deployments are scheduled through Jan. 26, 2022, subject to need.