FMH wants to add 5 swing beds for various procedures
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Hospital and nursing home officials have reached a compromise on “swing bed” licenses Franklin Memorial Hospital seeks from the state. Additionally, one of the health care systems has agreed to sell five licenses for the subacute beds to the hospital.

Jill Berry Bowen, chief operating officer at Franklin Memorial, said the hospital plans to amend its state Certificate of Need request from 10 subacute care bed licenses to five.

The hospital has a Certificate of Need pending with the state to reclassify some of its existing medical surgical beds to be used for subacute care or so-called swing beds when needed to provide short-term skilled rehabilitation to patients with complex medical conditions.

Area nursing home officials objected to the hospital’s application for 10 beds saying it would cause a negative financial impact on their facilities, loss of jobs and it was a duplicate of services the nursing home and rehabilitation centers already provide.

Representatives from each party met this week to work things out and reached an agreement that nursing homes now propose to support.

“With the hospital agreeing to reduce the number of beds requested in its application, my organization is willing to step forward to sell five beds to Franklin Memorial Hospital,” Michael Tyler of Sandy River Health System said in a press release. “This would allow the hospital to begin the swing bed service once state approval is received.”

The bed licenses being offered wouldn’t come from Sandy River Center Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Farmington, Berry Bowen said. The licenses would come from another nursing home outside the area where the licenses are no longer needed, she said.

Officials are encouraging people to attend a public hearing on Franklin Memorial’s amended proposal scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday at the North Dining Hall at the University of Maine at Farmington.

The hospital still needs to prove to the state that the additional five subacute bed licenses are needed in the greater Franklin County area.

Geri Bryant, administrator of Sandy River Center in Farmington, said the agreement meets the hospital’s needs, nursing homes’ needs and will keep the relationship between the hospital and nursing homes strong.

Both Berry Bowen and hospital President Richard Batt said they were pleased with the agreement that has been made.

“We came to an arrangement that best fits the needs of the patients and their families that we all serve,” Batt said.

In addition to offering care, the hospital is trying to return some of the 63 bed licenses that were lost to the area when Parkview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Livermore Falls closed in 2002.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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