December 4, 2024
(LEWISTON, Maine) – Yesterday, St. Mary’s Health System unveiled a strategic plan to enhance care offerings, focusing on the most critical needs across the Lewiston-Auburn community. The plan will prioritize primary care, behavioral health, outpatient services, elder care and emergency and urgent care, while realigning existing services to better reflect community demand.
“Our goal is to provide care that has the greatest impact on the health and well-being of our community,” said Winfield Brown, President of St. Mary’s Health System. “This plan reflects our deep commitment to meeting the needs of all our patients and ensuring sustainability in how we deliver care.”
Key initiatives include:
- Behavioral health expansion – St. Mary’s is integrating psychiatric support into primary care practices and launching Lewiston-Auburn’s first day hospital program in 2025 to bridge gaps between inpatient and outpatient behavioral care.
- Increased access to care – St. Mary’s has welcomed 39 new providers this year, with plans for several additional primary and virtual care providers to join in the coming months.
- Realignment of inpatient services – St. Mary’s primary service lines are centered on routine care, outpatient services and behavioral health. As we are not a traditional trauma center, we want to align our offerings with the demand for short stay admissions and outpatient care. Given low patient volumes, we will be suspending ICU level care services at St. Mary’s hospital by the end of the year. We will also be adjusting our inpatient capacity to better reflect current demand for lower acuity services.
“This is about making thoughtful, forward-looking changes to ensure we remain a strong, vital healthcare provider for generations to come, said Brown “We are confident these steps will help us better serve the Lewiston-Auburn area while addressing the critical health needs of our community.”
These changes are being thoughtfully implemented over the coming months, and St. Mary’s is committed to working closely with patients to ensure a smooth transition of care, where needed. It is St Mary’s desire to retain every employee who wishes to remain with the health system and will work hard to transition any impacted employees into new roles.
