The closure of a 55-year-old nursing home in Maine is the latest in a disturbing trend of nursing home closures in the state and across the country.

The Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing Center in Presque Isle, Maine, closed its doors for good on Thursday, according to Phil Cyr, whose family owned the nursing home for the past 48 years.

Cyr, who is president of Caribou Nursing Home Inc., which also operates the Caribou Rehab and Nursing Center in Caribou, ME, said the decision to close the Presque facility was very difficult, but the organization had to make it for financial and staffing reasons.

“The problem is that we didn’t have enough nursing staff to run both buildings,” said Cyr McKnight’s Business Daily in a telephone interview. “We ultimately decided to close one facility to save the other.”

Cyr, winner of the 2023 Setting the Standard award McKnights Pinnacle Awards said the Presque facility had only been operating at 60 to 70 percent capacity in recent years, but would have needed to operate at around 90 percent capacity to break even.

Cyr said there were several reasons for the closure, but ultimately the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to hire and retain enough staff to operate the facility at full capacity.

“I think the last straw was the loss of staff due to COVID,” he said. “I think when COVID hit, a lot of people decided to leave healthcare and find employment in another field.”

The nursing home closure is the latest in a troubling trend of nursing home closures in Maine over the past two decades. During that time, the Pine Tree State has lost at least 25 long-term care facilities, including the Narraguagus Bay Health Care Facility, which announced its closure plans in May, according to The County Newspapers.

This trend is also being observed at the national level. According to a report released last week by the American Health Care Association, at least 774 nursing homes nationwide were closed between February 2020 and July 2024, resulting in 28,421 residents losing their nursing home beds. In addition, there are 62,567 fewer nursing home beds today than in 2020.

In addition to COVID, Cyr said, new federal and state staffing regulations and reimbursement rates that have not kept pace with the cost of care have made it difficult for many nursing homes to maintain operations.

“My position today is that no businessman in his right mind wants to get into the nursing home business,” he said. “The profit margin is simply not there. Fifty years ago it was a profitable business; today it is not.”

However, Cyr said his family plans to continue operating the Caribou facility, which has been in the family for more than 50 years. He said about 30 of the Presque Isle facility’s residents have been transferred to the Caribou facility or other nearby nursing homes, and 17 staff members have been transferred to fill vacancies at the Caribou facility.