PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Nov. 30, 2020 – The Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing Center, seen in this file photo, closed Thursday after its last resident left.

Central Aroostook County lost one of its three nursing homes Thursday when the last resident moved out and the Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing Center closed for good.

The Cyr family, which also owns the Caribou Nursing and Rehab Center, announced in March that the Presque Isle location would close, affecting 49 residents and 120 employees.

It is the latest in a string of nursing home closures in Maine, largely due to staff shortages and a lack of state funding to operate them. The Presque Isle nursing home served the center of Aroostook for 48 years. Its closure leaves another gap in elder care in Maine, where 22 percent of the population is 65 and older.

“COVID has taken the wind out of the sails of every nursing home business in the United States,” said Phil Cyr, president of the Cyr Family. “We’re all trying to get out of this and get back on our feet.”

Maine has lost about 25 long-term care facilities in the last decade. Narraguagus Bay Health Care Facility was one of the last to announce its closure. Other facilities in Deer Isle and Ellsworth have closed, and locations in Houlton and Belfast have been downsized.

In part, it’s because many long-term care home residents are insured through MaineCare, and the state’s costs for their care aren’t enough to keep nursing homes operating. Industry leaders say more funding is needed to prevent the closures.

The Department of Health and Human Services is considering a fiscal year 2025 reform of MaineCare’s nursing facility rates that would increase staffing levels, eliminate more expensive temporary workers, and provide more incentives for employees.

Cyr, who has worked in the nursing home industry for 45 years, sits on the Maine Health Care Association committee reviewing proposed funding reform.

“We want DHHS to guarantee that no one’s pay will actually go down under the new system – it will actually stay the same or they’ll get more – and to my knowledge they haven’t really committed to that yet,” he said.

The building in Presque Isle is for sale. An appraiser said it would be best used as a nursing home or doctor’s office, Cyr said. Subsidized housing for the elderly is also a possibility.

The last resident of Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing was transferred to a facility in Madawaska on Thursday, he said. While some went to nursing homes elsewhere in Aroostook or southern Maine, two-thirds of them were transferred to Caribou.

Terry Sandusky of Mapleton is the regional representative for the Maine Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, a nonprofit organization based in Augusta that advocates for the care and quality of life of residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, home care and hospice.

Sandusky has accompanied 44 residents as they leave the center in Presque Isle. While 30 went to the Caribou facility, the others live between Mars Hill and Madawaska, he said. Most residents are happy, although some family members have to make a longer trip to visit them.

“Because so many residents moved to the Caribou nursing home, they were placed in rooms close to each other,” Sandusky said. “Some residents who were roommates at Presque Isle are roommates at Caribou.”

Some well-known employees have also changed, he said.

Other nursing homes in Aroostook County include High View Rehab and Nursing Center in Madawaska, Madigan Estates in Houlton, Maine Veterans Home in Caribou, Borderview in Van Buren, Mercy Home in Eagle Lake, Forest Hill Manor in Fort Kent and High View Manor in Madawaska.

The closure exacerbates the dilemma of providing enough beds for those in need.

“There is a significant need in the county for nursing home beds for older, frail people who require more care than they can provide at home,” says Tammy Beaulier-Fuller, RN, vice president of nursing and patient care at Northern Light AR Gould Hospital in Presque Isle.

The hospital operates Northern Light Continuing Care in Mars Hill.

The silver lining is that the loss of one nursing home has given a boost to the other two in the area.

Some residents and staff chose to move to Mars Hill, Beaulier-Fuller said, including former Presque Isle administrator Mark McKenna, the new Mars Hill administrator.

She declined to say how many residents or staff were relocated, but said the health center was working to increase its capacity after closing Thursday.

“Over the last six months, the facility has been able to increase its population from 30 to 40 residents by hiring temporary staff,” Beaulier-Fuller said. “As we are able to hire and train more staff in the coming weeks and months, we will be able to increase the number of residents in the facility.”

Caribou Rehab is financially stronger, Cyr said. In addition to the roughly 30 patients it transferred from Presque Isle, the 67-bed center has hired about 20 new employees, including more than a dozen nursing assistants from Presque Isle.

An expansion is being planned. On October 1, five additional approved beds will be added to the center, increasing the capacity to 72.

“We’re coming out of the hole, not as fast as we’d like, but we’re making a comeback,” Cyr said. “And we in Central Aroostook are coming out of the hole, especially because Presque Isle was closed.”