Dear Editor:

The LincolnHealth Board of Trustees is asking the state to reconsider its recent requirement that we become the only 24-hour urgent care center in the state of Maine.

Our board voted two years ago to close the emergency room because, with an average of only two patients a night, we could not guarantee the highest quality of care in the middle of the night to patients with life-threatening conditions. That difficult decision was about patient safety and quality of care, not money.

Urgent care is very different. It is there for minor illnesses or injuries, not life-threatening conditions. There is no patient safety or quality of care concern with treating minor conditions 24/7. But because it is not for life-threatening problems, very few patients seek out urgent care in the middle of the night. Most people wait until morning.

So, this time the concern really is about money. Do we, as a community, really want to spend almost $700,000 a year to make sure an average of two patients per night won’t have to wait until morning to treat their minor illnesses or injuries?

The board of trustees would prefer to see our limited healthcare dollars spent on more pressing community health needs, such as: price reductions; the Wound Care Clinic we recently opened at the Family Care Center building; the newly expanded St. Andrews Wellness and Rehab Center opening this month; and our plan to increase the number of skilled/rehabilitation beds at St. Andrews Village.

During the public hearing we had this winter at the Boothbay Harbor Town Office, there were many requests from community members to increase the number of skilled care beds in the Boothbay Region. That, we believe, would be a better use of the community’s money.

We hope residents will join us in asking the state to reconsider the 24-hour urgent care condition in our approved Certificate of Need and to allow us instead to put that money toward establishing more skilled beds at St. Andrews Village.

Jeff Curtis, Chairman
LincolnHealth Board of Trustees