Maine Medical Center

Geography
Location	Portland, Maine, United States
Coordinates	43°39′11″N 70°16′34″W / 43.653°N 70.276°W / 43.653; -70.276Coordinates: 43°39′11″N 70°16′34″W / 43.653°N 70.276°W / 43.653; -70.276
Organization
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	Tufts University School of Medicine
Services
Emergency department	Level I trauma center
Beds	637
History
Founded	1874
Links
Website	www.mmc.org
Lists	Hospitals in Maine

Maine Medical Center (commonly abbreviated to MMC or contracted to Maine Med) is a 637 licensed-bed teaching hospital located in Portland, Maine, United States with a staff of over 6,000 people.^[1] Founded in 1874, it is the largest hospital in northern New England with 27,000 inpatients, more than 500,000 outpatient visits and over 16,000 surgeries performed annually.^[2] MMC is structured as a non-profit, private corporation governed by volunteer trustees.

History

A 2009-issued 550-piece jigsaw puzzle of Maine Medical Center commemorating the expansion of the hospital's emergency department

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]

Maine Medical Center is a teaching hospital, with an affiliation with the University of Southern Maine, Saint Joseph's College, Tufts University and Dartmouth College. As a part of its mission, MMC is also a leader in biomedical research, through its Maine Medical Center Research Institute, ongoing clinical trials, and translational research.

The present-day complex of more than one million square feet (92,000 square meters) was completed in 1984. 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 Hannaford Center for Safety, Innovation and Simulation opened at the Brighton campus.^[7]

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 Southern Maine Medical Center, St. Andrews Healthcare, Miles Health Care, Spring Harbor Hospital and HomeHealth-VNSM.^[8]

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.^[9][10] 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.^[11]

The inpatient unit of BBCH is approximately 26,000 square feet (2,400 m²) with 48 beds including a 25-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and a seven-bed continuing care nursery. The facility is in the process of building a Women and Infants' Hospital, which will contain an additional 50 NICU and continuing care beds. More than 10,000 children are treated on an emergency basis annually.^[12]

Specialty programs and care centers

• Barbara Bush Children's Hospital
• Joint Replacement Center
• Family Birth Center
• Cancer Institute
• Digestive Health Center
• Poison Center
• Scarborough Surgery Center
• MaineHealth VitalNetwork
• Maine Transplant Program

Affiliations

Maine Medical Center is a teaching hospital, with a former affiliation with the University of Vermont College of Medicine since the late 1970s that ended in 2011 with the introduction of a Maine-track program at Tufts University School of Medicine. This program allows students interested in practicing in Maine to attend the third and fourth year of their clerkships at MMC in Portland rather than Boston.^[13] MMC also hosts a number of third year clerkships for students from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.

References

External links

• Maine Medical Center official website
• A photograph of the original building, then named Maine General Hospital