It’s been nearly six months since Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston ended its trauma center designation, reducing advanced emergency care options in the middle of the state.

Maine has given it two years to get it back.

Trauma centers are verified by the American College of Surgeons to provide around-the-clock emergency care and trauma surgery, plus varying levels of regional disaster planning, education and research. The U.S. averages 40 trauma centers per state. Maine has two.

Central Maine Healthcare, which owns the Lewiston hospital and other facilities in western Maine, let its trauma center status lapse in December 2025. Following years of deep financial losses, hospital officials said skipping trauma center verification would save the hospital $500,000 a year on administrative overhead and ACS-required paperwork.

Officials said patients would not experience a difference in trauma care. But the state didn’t accept it.

At the time, Central Maine Healthcare had been awaiting state approval to be acquired by California-based nonprofit Prime Healthcare Foundation. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services allowed the deal to go through in February with the condition that CMMC reestablish its level three trauma center status.

Last month, it outlined those requirements:

• CMMC must reestablish level three trauma center designation by April 2, 2028.
• By Oct. 2 of this year, the hospital must obtain a trauma manager — the person who leads the trauma center and communicates with other hospitals — and continue to actively recruit additional trauma surgeons.
• Once trauma center accreditation is attained, CMMC must maintain it for the entire term of accreditation: Three years.
• The hospital must attend state trauma meetings, implement a performance improvement and patient safety plan, and submit quarterly progress reports to the state.

For now, Maine has two trauma centers:

— Maine Medical Center in Portland, a level one trauma center that provides emergency care, every trauma surgery specialty and trauma research;

— Eastern Maine Medical Center, a level two center in Bangor with some but not all surgical specialties. The hospitals are more than two hours apart.

Without a trauma center in Lewiston, some patients are spending more time on the road or at unequipped hospitals waiting — sometimes hours — to be transported.

Dr. Bryan Morse, trauma medical director at Maine Medical Center, said CMMC’s trauma services have gradually declined since the hospital cut neurosurgery in 2021. That has put pressure on the system in several ways, he said.

A spokesman for Central Maine Healthcare said the hospital remains committed to trauma care.

“CMMC continues to provide emergency care, surgical services, critical care, stabilization and coordinated transfer support consistent with its role as a trauma system hospital in the state’s healthcare system. We also continue to work closely with EMS partners and transfer networks throughout Maine and New England when higher levels of specialty care are needed,” the spokesman said.