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Northern Light Inland Hospital in Waterville is closing in June, the health care system announced Thursday.
Patient care will stop May 27, with the full closure to take place June 11. The decision was made Wednesday, Senior Vice President Marie Vienneau said.
The hospital is losing roughly $1.5 million a month, Vienneau said.
Closing the 48-bed hospital is the biggest change for the floundering health system, which in recent months has been navigating decreasing credit ratings, administrative changes and outsourcing of jobs. The February credit downgrade means the system will likely struggle to find lending, let alone lending with favorable terms, an expert told the Bangor Daily News previously.
There are no plans to close other Northern Light hospitals, the health care system said.
All the clinics associated with the hospital in Waterville are closing. Northern Light Continuing Care Lakewood, a 105-bed, long-term care facility in Waterville, will remain open.
Choosing to close the hospital was not an easy decision but there were not enough patients to “balance the costs of maintaining operations,” in part because of the number of health care options in the area, CEO Tim Dentry said.
Walk-in care at Inland Hospital closed at noon Thursday, the hospital said on Facebook. No reason was provided but it said it will reopen at 8 a.m. Friday.
Obstetrics and gynecology services at the hospital ended March 1, for what the hospital called “ongoing recruiting challenges.” Outpatient services in Oakland, Madison and Unity were scheduled to be consolidated starting in March.
The decision to consolidate was a short-term, mitigation strategy that did not provide enough savings to bring the hospital’s budget “even near positive,” Vienneau said.
There are 309 full-time employees in Waterville and Northern Light believes there are jobs for all employees either within the health care system or at another area system, Vienneau said. There is not a guarantee of employment.
Northern Light said the property will be sold but will maintain the building and grounds until then. There will likely be conversations with the community about how the property can best serve the area, Vienneau said.
The hospital serves about 13 percent of the Waterville area, Vienneau said. The system is working with MaineGeneral and other Northern Light locations to take on affected patients.
Waterville, which had a population of nearly 16,000 people during the 2020 U.S. census, will still have a hospital and emergency room. MaineGeneral runs the Thayer Center for Health at 149 North St.
About 30 minutes north of Waterville is the Northern Light Sebasticook Valley Hospital, which operates an emergency room 24/7. MaineGeneral also runs a hospital in Augusta.
Inland Hospital opened in 1943 and became a part of Northern Light in 1998, according to its website.