Maine Medical Center (commonly abbreviated to MMC or contracted to Maine Med) is a 700-licensed-bed teaching hospital in Portland, Maine, United States. Affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine, it is located in the Western Promenade neighborhood. It has a staff of over 9,500.[1] The facility is one of only three Level I Trauma Centers in Northern New England. Founded in 1874, it is the largest hospital in northern New England with 28,000 inpatient visits, about 500,000 outpatient visits, 88,000 emergency visits, and over 27,000 surgeries performed annually.[2] MMC is structured as a non-profit, private corporation governed by volunteer trustees. Maine Medical Center is wholly owned by, and serves as the flagship hospital for, MaineHealth, a non-profit healthcare network servicing Maine and New Hampshire.
History
The original hospital building on the campus.
Maine Medical Center is the largest tertiary care hospital in Northern New England, serving all of Maine and parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. It is a Level One Trauma Center, most recently named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top hospitals in America for heart care, orthopedics and gynecology, and home to the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital, cited as one of the Top 25 children's hospitals in the country.[3][4][5]
The present-day complex of more than one million square feet (92,000 square meters) was completed in 1985. In 2009, Maine Medical Center completed a major expansion, to include a new or improved emergency department, birthing center, neonatal intensive care unit, helipad, utility plant, and parking garage.[6] In August 2007, it opened a new Ambulatory Surgical Center in Scarborough, Maine, named Scarborough Surgical Center. Maine Medical Center also has the Brighton Medical Center Campus, which is the location of Brighton First Care and New England Rehab.
In 2010, Maine Medical Center's 18,000-square-foot, $6-million Hannaford Center for Safety, Innovation and Simulation opened at the Brighton campus.[7]
In 2014 Maine Medical Center began construction on a $40-million, 40,000-square-foot surgical expansion on top of the existing Bean building. Opened in 2015, it features 5 operating rooms and 20 perioperative-care beds, and allows for the creation of a cardiac hybrid operating room.[8]
In 2018, the largest renovation and expansion project in the hospital's history began. In December 2019, two new patient floors (64 new rooms) on the Coulombe Family Tower, as well as a new heliport and three new levels (225 spaces) to the visitor parking garage were finished. In January 2020, a new employee parking garage was built on St. John Street. In 2021, a new 108,000 square foot medical building was built on the hospital's Scarborough campus, which included neuroscience, ear, nose and throat, and vascular surgery practices into a new building.[9]
The new Malone Family Tower is set to be completed in 2024. A 45 year old parking garage was demolished to make way for the new facility. A new Sterile Processing Department will be located in this new wing. The new wing will add 265,000 square feet to the hospital. It will have seven floors and a basement, with 96 new patient rooms and will be the new home of the cardiovascular section.[10]
Maine Medical Center Research Institute
Since 1956, Maine Medical Center has recruited NIH-funded scientists to staff its research institute. The facility is subdivided into the centers for molecular medicine, clinical and translational research, outcomes research and evaluation, psychiatric research, and Lyme and vector-borne diseases. The institute also participates in multiple national and international clinical trials in fields ranging from cardiology to oncology, offering opportunities for graduate and post-doctoral training as well as funding.[11]
Currently, Maine Medical Center Research Institute is one of 126 NIH-designated "Centers for Research Excellence" receiving funding for stem and progenitor cell biology and regenerative medicine.[12]
Governance
MMC as seen from the South Portland side of the Portland International Jetport
Maine Medical Center is owned by MaineHealth, the state's largest healthcare organization. MaineHealth formed in the late 1990s from MMC, with its first board of directors serving from 1999 to 2000. MaineHealth owns and operates a series of mental, long-term, primary care, emergency, and home healthcare facilities in southern, central, and western Maine. Other MaineHealth companies include Memorial Hospital, North Conway NH, Western Maine Health (Penbay Medical Center & Waldo), Southern Maine Health Care (Biddeford & Sanford), LincolnHealth, Spring Harbor Hospital and HomeHealth-VNSM.[13]
Barbara Bush Children's Hospital
Referred to as a "hospital within a hospital", the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital (BBCH) is integrated within Maine Medical Center to offer a complete range of pediatric services, specialties and programs including behavioral and developmental, neonatal, cardiology, infectious disease, neurology, palliative care and otolaryngology, among others.[14][15] The original Children's Hospital opened in 1908, later merging with the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary (opened in 1890) and the Maine General Hospital (opened in 1874) to become Maine Medical Center. In 1998, the facility sought formal accreditation for its children's services as the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center.[16] The hospital treats infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout Maine.[17]
The inpatient unit of BBCH is approximately 26,000 square feet (2,400 m2) with 109 beds including a 31-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and a 20-bed continuing care nursery.[18][19]
