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PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Beginning Monday, Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital in Presque Isle banned almost all visitors in response to COVID-19 reaching Aroostook County.
The hospital announced the changes on Saturday, only a day after Houlton Regional Hospital said that a patient had tested positive for COVID-19 in what was the first confirmed case in Aroostook County. A.R. Gould said the new rules were necessary to protect the hospital’s patients and staff as well as the wider community from potential infection.
[Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county]
Hospital patients will not be allowed visitors except for a few exceptions. Underage patients are allowed visits from one parent or guardian, while those in obstetric care — primarily related to pregnancy and childbirth — are permitted one partner or support person. End-of-life patients can have two visitors.
The hospital also left room for patients to be allowed one visitor in “special or unique situations,” including if a patient has an “altered mental status,” cognitive difficulties or is incapacitated.
Patients confirmed or suspected to have COVID-19 will not be allowed in-person visits under any circumstances, but can communicate with their families via the remote conferencing program Zoom.
A.R. Gould Hospital also said that Northern Light Continuing Care in Mars Hill would continue to ban visitors. The only exception is for end-of-life patients, whose visiting privileges will be decided by staff on a case-by-case basis.
The changes are part of the hospital’s response as it prepares for COVID-19 cases to surge across The County in the coming weeks.
In a Presque Isle City Council meeting on Wednesday, April 1, hospital president Greg LaFrancois said the facility was processing one to four COVID-19 tests a day and now operates “drive-through testing” for the virus. He said the hospital had conducted 70 tests and none had come back positive.
He said hospital staff had reconfigured the facility’s set-up in preparation for an onslaught of new COVID-19 patients, including doubling ICU beds. Yet, he said there would come a time when there would not be enough space to care for all COVID-19 patients, requiring treatment outside hospital walls.
LaFrancois said that he was beginning to examine alternate sites to treat COVID-19 patients once his hospital fills. He said Northern Maine Community College was already preparing the college’s dorms to be such a site.
He predicted that his hospital would primarily be treating COVID-19 patients around six weeks after the first case of the virus — mid-May based on the first case appearing on April 3.
LaFrancois said that he expects his hospital to begin moving patients to alternative facilities 60 days after the first confirmed coronavirus case in Aroostook County, which would be June 2, 2020.
He said he expects Aroostook County to be at its peak in COVID-19 cases on June 23, after which the virus will become more manageable.
“It will still be happening, but we’ll have our arms around it by mid-July,” LaFrancois said. “I believe by late June, we’ll be able to say that the worst is behind us.”
He said he was optimistic that Aroostook County would have a “flatter curve” than the rest of Maine because of its sparse population density and jumpstart on social distancing. However, he is worried about the risk of spread from shoppers at popular locations in The County.
“I stress out every time I drive by Walmart and Lowe’s in particular,” LaFrancois said. “Those are two places where I see a lot of cars.”
