Northern Light CA Dean Breaks Ground on New Hospital
June 7, 2022 by Destination Moosehead Lake
On May 4, CA Dean and Northern Light Health leaders and staff gathered with donors, community members, and local and regional officials, to celebrate the groundbreaking of construction of the Moosehead Lake Region’s new hospital.
The groundbreaking took place on a rainy day but that didn’t damper everyone’s spirits. Standing under the tent with community members, donors, officials, hospital leaders, and staff, you could feel the community and togetherness as a whole. Everyone who was there had a purpose in coming together to celebrate the new groundbreaking of a very needed necessity in the Moosehead Lake Region.
“The CA Dean modernization project provides us with better tools and a modern space that preserves the future of healthcare in our region. The new patient and family-focused hospital will serve our community for decades to come,” said Marie Vienneau, FACHE, president, CA Dean Hospital, and senior vice president, Northern Light.
The history of Northern Light CA Dean Hospital dates back from 1911 when the Hollingsworth & Whitney Company, the predecessor to Scott Paper Company, built a regional YMCA and 10-bed hospital. The company’s president Charles Augustus Dean led the charge to build the hospital because he understood the importance of having local healthcare available for everyone in the region, including the 2,000 people who work in the vast forests around Moosehead Lake. Dean financed and built a modern 22-bed, fully equipped hospital in 1917.
The hospital has evolved over the years to meet the changing needs of the community and to bring advancements in healthcare to the Moosehead Lake Region. CA Dean Hospital and Northern Light Health boards have determined that the path forward is a modern, new hospital that will serve the area’s needs for the next century.
CA Dean made a promise (with the new hospital in mind) for the Moosehead Lake Region. CA Dean Hospital is unlike any other hospital in Maine. It serves the small towns of Maine’s most rural county and the vast woods of the Moosehead Lake Region, all the way up to the Canadian border. CA Dean covers more square miles than any other Maine hospital. CA Dean is designated as a critical access hospital, and lives up to this designation in every way- it must be here.
The promise was a forward-thinking approach to care that will prepare for future advancements in rural medicine. The design and technological capabilities of the hospital will streamline care provided by the CA Dean team and provide rapid access to experts in Bangor and beyond when needed.
The new main hospital building will house five private rooms with acute/swing beds, a 24/7 emergency department, imaging and lab services. A new, separate ambulance station and an FAA-approved helipad will also be built. The existing East Wing will be renovated to house 10 private rooms with swing beds.
CA Dean hospital will continue to address our region’s most important health concerns, including access to care, substance use disorder, food insecurity and more. That’s a key component of its nonprofit healthcare mission, and the new hospital will strengthen its ability to address these issues for years to come. For example, telehealth equipment in inpatient rooms and emergency department exam rooms will improve access to specialists in Bangor and beyond.
Sitework is now underway at the CA Dean campus. The new hospital is expected to open in the summer of 2023, and renovations to the East Wing and site demolition will be complete in 2024. CA Dean invites the entire community to sign the final beam to be placed on the new structure in early fall of 2022. If you would like to support CA Dean’s historic modernization project, please contact 207-695-5215 or visit northernlighthealth.org/CADeanPromise
