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V O L . X X I V N O. V M A R C H 5 , 2 0 1 8 14 H E A LT H C A R E F O C U S An ever-growing hospital Maine Med, which is on Portland's West End, is the state's largest medical center and the state's only teaching hospital. Maine Medical includes the Maine Medical Center Research Institute and Maine Medical Partners, which provides care through a network of more than 40 locations in greater Portland. Maine Med has never stopped growing. In 1985, it opened the six-story L.L. Bean Building, followed two years later by the Dana Center. In 2008, it opened the 190,000-square-foot East Tower, followed a year later by a 512-car visi- tor garage. In 2015, it added operating rooms and related care beds on a por- tion of the L.L. Bean Building. Big wards are long gone All together, 128 new, single-bed patient rooms will be contained in the expanded East Tower and the Congress Street structure. e hospi- tal's overall bed count will remain at 637, its licensed maximum. "We might increase our number of licensed beds over time, but we didn't want to start with that," says COO Sanders. "We wanted to start with how we operationally use the beds we're licensed for today." At a time when patient volume and the acuity of patient illnesses are rising, due to factors like Maine's aging population, private rooms will relieve compression of inpatient ser- vices into semi-private rooms, a chal- lenge exacerbated by the need to close up to 60 beds per day due to patient condition, like a communicable infec- tion or construction or staffi ng. Hospitals in general are moving toward private rooms, says Maine Hospital Association President Steven Michaud. at's due primarily to concerns around the risk of infec- tion and around maintaining patient confi dentiality. » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E goodwillnne.org/neurorehab WE KNOW BRAINS. We can help. BaySide in Portland (207) 761-8402 WestSide in Lewiston (207) 795-6110 www.harriman.com @harrimancreates Maple Way Dental Care © David Lamb Photography ARCHITECTURE ENGINEERING SUSTAINABLE DESIGN PLANNING INTERIOR DESIGN C O N S T R U C T I O N M A N AG E R : Turner Construction, New York City A R C H I T E C T U R A L F I R M : Perkin + Will, Boston Cives Steel Co., Augusta Otis Elevator Co., Westbrook (Maine division) UniStress Corp., Pittsfield, Mass. MAINE MEDICAL CENTER CONTRACTORS ON TAP SO FAR R E N D E R I N G / 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 Maine Medical Center plans to invest $512 million to update its 637-bed hospital. Upgrades will a new building on Congress Street.