Contact: Abbie Graiver
207 890-9819 / abbie.graiver@mainehealth.org
NORWAY, ME - Recovery efforts at Stephens Memorial Hospital continue after an incident last Friday resulted in a total hospital evacuation.
Stephens’ facilities teams have been working around the clock with construction and cleaning crews to complete critical clean-up repairs. Smoke and fire fighting activities were the primary sources of damage. Specialized crews are performing a disaster clean of all impacted areas; supplies and equipment have been re-stocked, and all systems have been checked for safe return to operations.
Although the incident caused significant disruption in care delivery, the Stephens operations and clinical teams have gone above and beyond to safely re-open the hospital. As a result, the status of operations as of Wednesday, September 22, 2021, is as follows:
- The Emergency Department resumed services on Friday, September 17, at 10:30 pm and remains fully operational.
- The Family Birthplace is still under repair. The timeline for re-opening is under assessment. The Stephens OB/GYN team is working closely with expecting families to manage their care and, where necessary, arrange for services at alternate locations. A dedicated location in the hospital is available to address any emergent labor and delivery needs until the Family Birthplace is returned to operation.
- Sixteen of twenty-four inpatient rooms are available. This includes all four intensive care beds, two of which are equipped to support the needs of patients with COVID-19.
- All hospital outpatient services (including Imaging, Laboratory, Infusion, etc.) resumed on Monday, September 20.
- Physician practice operations and outpatient rehabilitation services were not impacted and remain fully operational.
Andrea Patstone, President of Stephens Memorial Hospital, shares, “We are proud of our care team’s efforts and resilience over the last several days. The team showed an unprecedented level of disaster preparedness, teamwork, and expert decision-making while remaining calm throughout this crisis. As we work through our recovery efforts and return to normal operations, I am confident that we will come back stronger than ever.”
Stephens has well-developed emergency disaster plans in place, and drills are conducted on an ongoing basis. This level of training positioned the team for success in their response during the incident.
In addition, the community played a vital role in responding to the incident. We wish to extend a special thank you to all Emergency First Responders, neighboring hospitals and other care providers who assisted us during this very challenging time.
At this time, we are pending the formal results of the investigation from the Fire Marshal’s Office to determine the cause.
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About Stephens Memorial Hospital
Stephens Memorial Hospital is part of MaineHealth, a not-for-profit integrated health system consisting of nine local hospital systems, a comprehensive behavioral healthcare network, diagnostic services, home health agencies, and more than 1,700 employed and independent physicians working together through an Accountable Care Organization. With close to 23,000 employees, MaineHealth is the largest health system in northern New England and provides preventive care, diagnosis and treatment to 1.1 million residents in Maine and New Hampshire.