Nurses criticize hospital administration’s refusal to consult RNs and call on state lawmakers to invest in rural healthcare access

Union nurses at Mount Desert Island Hospital (MDIH) are fiercely critical of today’s announcement by CEO Chrissi Maguire that she will close the hospital’s obstetrics (OB) department on July 1, 2025, announced Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC).

“MDIH administrators’ decision rips critical healthcare services from rural working families in our community,” said Janice Horton, RN, who is a 32-year veteran of MDIH’s OB department. “This devastating, short-sighted decision was made by administrators without any input from or dialogue with nurses and caregivers. Nurses are deeply concerned about the permanent, damaging effects this decision will have on families MDIH is supposed to serve in Bar Harbor and surrounding towns and outer islands.”

This closure follows a rash of OB closures in Maine, including at York Hospital, Northern Maine Medical Hospital, Calais Community Hospital, Downeast Community Hospital, Waldo Hospital, and the entirety of Inland Hospital.

“Our union stands with the dedicated OB nurses at MDIH and condemns this closure in the strongest possible terms,” said Cokie Giles, RN and president of the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA). “This is an abject failure by the hospital’s administration, particularly CEO Chrissi Maguire. For the good of this community and of our state, MDIH’s OB department must remain open.”

MDIH nurses will hold a community meeting on the closure of their hospital’s OB department this Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Mount Desert Island YWCA (36 Mt Desert St, Bar Harbor, ME 04609). Community members are encouraged to attend.

Maine State Nurses Association is part of National Nurses Organizing Committee, representing 4,000 nurses and other caregivers from Portland to Fort Kent. NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing labor union of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide.