Farmington, Maine-based Franklin Memorial Hospital is applying for the critical access hospital designation in an attempt to ensure its future financial sustainability.
If it receives the designation, the hospital will see increased federal reimbursement for the true cost of delivering care, according to a June 14 Franklin Memorial news release shared with Becker's.
As part of the transition, Franklin Memorial will apply for a new hospital license and decrease its bed count from 65 to 25, per the program's guidelines.
"The daily patient census currently hovers around 25, so the decrease in bed count will have little to no effect on day-to-day hospital operations," the release stated. "It will not limit access nor be a downgrade for the facility."
A Franklin Memorial spokesperson told Becker's Franklin Memorial is able to apply for the critical access designation because of a change in criteria that was made in November. The criteria originally included a milage compnent that stated a hospital could not be “more than 35 miles from a hospital or another critical access hospital." The change added "or more than 15 miles in mountainous terrain or only secondary roads (or) certified by the state," which allowed Franklin Memorial to qualify.