Registered nurses at Northern Maine Medical Center (NMMC) in Fort Kent, Maine are demanding greater transparency from management after its abrupt closure of the Child Adolescent Psychiatric Unit (CAPU) on Sept. 6, 2024.

“Hospital management, including CEO Jeff Zewe, talk a lot about transparency, but their actions show a complete lack of respect and accountability to nurses and the community we care for,” said Terry Caron, an RN at NMMC who worked for 12 years in the CAPU and is now working in the adult psychiatric unit. “Just as nurses and the community were not given any notice about the closure of obstetrics services in May 2023, we were not given any notice about the sudden closure of the child adolescent psychiatric unit a few weeks ago.”

When the hospital stopped taking admissions to the CAPU unit on Sept. 6, it was a complete surprise to all NMMC employees, especially the registered nurses who worked on the CAPU. The closure contradicts a statement made by CEO Jeff Zewe in Sept. 2023 that there would not be any decrease in services as NMMC made the transition to be designated as a Medicare Critical Access Hospital (CAH).

Nurses say this lack of transparency is one reason why they voted to unionize this past January and improve conditions for nurses, health care workers, and patients with a union contract.

“We are fighting for a fair union contract that will protect our patients and our community from these abrupt changes to services,” said Bradley Martinez, an RN in NMMC’s intensive care unit and emergency departments. “We need to attract younger families to the St. John Valley to keep our community and our economy thriving. The closures of the obstetrics and child psychiatric units jeopardize the health care quality that people look for when considering where they want to settle and grow their families.”

One key focus of union nurses in contract negotiations is to secure and improve safe staffing levels throughout the hospital. But nurses report that NMMC management has so far rejected their proposals for safer staffing at NMMC.

“We’re bargaining for ourselves, our patients and our community,” said Caron. “But negotiations take both sides participating to make progress. NMMC should spend less time shutting down vital services for our state and community, and more time at the bargaining table so we can get a fair deal for everyone.” 

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 nearly 225,000 members nationwide.