Nearly $3.5M award to rural Maine health care facilities

(WABI) - A big announcement on Thursday that big money is heading to several rural Maine health care facilities.

Just under $3.5 million is being spread out among nine facilities in six counties.

The grants will range from $28,000 up to $1 million.

All the facilities have been impacted by the pandemic and span from Winslow to Millinocket to Eastport.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, says this money will have a lasting impact.

Basically going to be sustainable in the sense that they are investments in infrastructure that will continue to benefit rural Maine residents. A new ambulance in Dover-Foxcroft that’s going to be important in that region for the next 10 or 15, 20 years,” said King.

In total, nearly half a billion dollars in federal funding will be benefit facilities all over the country.

According to the USDA, the following locations will receive funds:

• Sebasticook Family Doctors, also known as Hometown Health Center, in Palmyra, will use a $1 million grant to construct a 49,700 square-foot health care and wellness facility to help meet the needs of the community, especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will provide a safe place for testing, medication assisted therapy, food cupboard, teaching kitchen, dental addition and add jobs to the service area.
• Maine General Community Care, in Waterville and Augusta, will use a $1 million grant to recover lost revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The recovery of lost funds will allow the community care facilities to continue with critical services.
• Katahdin Valley Health Center, in Dover-Foxcroft, will use a $341,000 grant to purchase medical equipment such as pharmacy refrigeration and freezer for vaccine storage and administration, vehicles to transport vaccines and staff to clinics and provide home delivery of pharmaceutical medications, medical exam room equipment and supplies for primary care, pediatrics, dental, walk-in care, laboratory and testing, equipment for sterilization and infection control, and more.
• Cary Medical Center, in Caribou, will use a $323,800 grant for a COVID Community Response Project to partner with Pines Health Services to further support the immediate health care needs of the community related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Eastport Health Care, Inc., in Eastport, will use a $281,400 grant to obtain funds for continued care along Maine’s Central Eastern Coast. The funds will consist of adding personnel for the successful management of VOCID patients, food distribution, equipment and supplies to accommodate the increase in testing for diagnosis and mitigation measures.
• Penobscot Valley Hospital will use a $244,000 grant to purchase medical equipment such as one ventilator, patient monitoring system, 12 workstations on wheels and 15 laptops.
• Fish River Rural Health, in Fort Kent, will use a $191,300 grant to support their continued efforts to diagnose and manage COVID-19 and other future pandemics throughout the Norther Aroostook County communities.
• MRH Corp, in Dover-Foxcroft, will use a $88,400 grant to purchase an ambulance.
• Piscataquis Regional Food Center, in Dover-Foxcroft, will use a $28,000 grant to install a 600 cubic-foot freezer and a 48-kilowatt propane powered backup generator to safely store food products in frozen, refrigerated, and shelf-stable forms until they can be delivered to rural distribution partners.

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