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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 69 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine I N N OVAT I O N / R & D Building for unexpected needs Maine Med's expansion, which offi- cially began in 2018, will add a total of 160 new private patient rooms. Sixty- four of those rooms were added to the Coulombe Family Tower, funded by a $7.5 million donation from Paul and Giselaine Coulombe and their daughter Michelle, who serves as president of the Coulombe Family Foundation. eir gift went to adding three additional floors to the Coulombe Family Tower for private rooms focused on oncol- ogy care. Paul Coulombe, a Lewiston native, is the former owner of White Rock Distillery, which he sold more than a decade ago. at phase of the project, com- pleted in 2019, also included the new Sisters Heliport that tops the tower, funded by a $3 million gift from sisters Linda and Diana Bean. An addition of three-levels to the visitor's parking garage, creating 225 new parking spaces, was also com- pleted in 2019. Construction of a new employee parking garage on St. John Street was completed in 2020. And a new 108,000-square-foot specialty care facility at MMC's Scarborough Campus was finished in 2021. Sanders says that the biggest chal- lenge hospitals around the country face today is improving the flow of the medical experience. Adding the new private rooms helped with this because each room was built to serve any type of patient, ranging from those in acute care to more complex needs, creating flexibility in providing care. Private rooms also improve patient privacy and quality of stay and help prevent spread of infection. is type of flexibility was criti- cal during the pandemic, says Sanders, who credits the additional rooms in the Coulombe Family Tower to helping the hospital handle the influx of COVID patients during that crisis. "e need for acuity adaptable beds was a concept tested through the pandemic," says Jeff Keilman, princi- pal architect on the project. "Universal rooms are able to provide additional ICU capacity at a time of need with- out any modifications to rooms when designed for universal and flexible requirements." Next phase e new 265,000-square-foot Malone Family Tower, slated for completion in 2024, is the current and final phase of the project. In place of a now-demol- ished 45-year-old parking garage, the seven-story building will become the central entrance to the hospital, house 96 private patient rooms, 19 procedure rooms and a new sterile processing department on its top floor. John and Leslie Malone earned nam- ing rights to the tower with a donation of $25 million, the largest gift MMC has received to date. e Malones, who reside in both Colorado and Boothbay, were persuaded to contribute to the campaign by fellow Boothbay resident Paul Coulombe. John Malone is chairman of Liberty Media Corp., a holding company that reported revenues last year of $9.4 billion and has ownership in other businesses and sports teams. He built the media company Tele- Communications Inc. and served as CEO before selling it to AT&T for $50 billion in 1999, and is also report- edly the largest private landowner in the U.S., with 2.2 million acres, about half of which is in Maine. e Malones, whose philanthropy focuses on education, medicine and preservation, approach giving in order to attract talent. "e environment is important," John Malone previously told Mainebiz. "Quality of life is the No. 1 thing you look for. If you have a nice facility and a great quality of life it's relatively easy to attract the best people we can." C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F M A I N E M E D I C A L C E N T E R Jeff Sanders, president of Maine Medical Center, says the hospital's expansion is necessary to keep pace with changes in medical care and Maine's growing need for services. We wanted to increase the capacity for what we do great today. — Jeff Sanders Maine Med The employee owners of PC Construction are proud of our innovative work spanning from Maine to Florida that has earned the distinction of ENR Southeast's Contractor of the Year. We truly are Building Stronger, Together. CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR Join Our Team – Excellence Works Here Visit pcconstruction.com/careers

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