PORTLAND, Maine — The new Malone Family Tower is set to open and begin admitting patients at Maine Medical Center next month.
The 300,000-square-foot, eight-story addition will house cardiac and cardiovascular services, as well as a new sterile processing department, operating rooms, and more.
The tower comes as the final installment in the hospital's multi-year expansion and modernization project that launched in 2018, aiming to enhance patient access to hospital-based care, create more private rooms, and help facilitate better patient outcomes, MaineHealth said Thursday in a release.
Its features include 96 private patient rooms, 10 operating rooms, nine procedure rooms, and 40 pre- and post-procedure beds, according to the release.
"Sitting atop the tower will be a new 20,000-square-foot sterile processing department (SPD) that will serve all of the operating and procedure rooms at Maine Medical Center," the release stated.
Additionally, the new building adds 32 intensive care unit-level beds, creating a total of more than 100 ICU beds at Maine Medical Center.
"MMC’s cardiovascular team provides extraordinary care, and with the Malone Family Tower we have a facility that matches that high bar," MaineHealth Southern Region Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joel Botler said in the Thursday release. "Today, we cannot serve all of the patients who require this type of care at Maine Medical Center. This tower allows us to meet that need both today and for tomorrow."
The level-one trauma facility performs the most cardiac and cardiovascular procedures in the state. According to MaineHealth, MMC performs more than 1,200 open heart surgeries, about 5,000 catheter-based procedures, and about 600 ablations a year.
"With more procedures requiring large, interdisciplinary teams, advanced imaging, and other technologies, our new operating and procedure spaces can accommodate the latest advances in cardiac therapeutics and treatments, while also providing a more comfortable environment for our patients," Botler added.
The Malone Family Tower also features a "green roof," designed to reduce water runoff, minimize a "heat island" effect, and provide a calming space for patients, visitors, and care team members.
MMC's expansion and modernization project, which began in 2018, also included an expansion of the visitor parking garage, an addition of two floors containing 64 private rooms, the Linda and Diana Bean Sisters Heliport atop the Coulombe Family Tower, a new parking garage for care team members, and a new medical office building dedicated to specialty care at the hospital's Scarborough campus.
"Funding for the $378 million Malone Family Tower comes from reserves, operating revenues, grants, bonds and most importantly, generous donations from the community," the release stated.
MaineHealth said the tower is named in recognition of John and Leslie Malone, whose $25 million donation in 2021 to The NEXT 150 | The Campaign for Maine Medical Center was reportedly the largest single philanthropic gift in the hospital's history.
The tower is set to open on June 9.