WATERVILLE — Kaylee Godin didn’t see it coming.

A registered nurse at Northern Light Inland Hospital, Godin said her supervisor told her and other employees last month the hospital would close for good June 11. That meant Godin, who is in her mid-20s and lives in the Skowhegan area, will be out of a job.

“It was a shock, and I looked around and I saw a lot of senior nurses crying because they didn’t really know what to do,” Godin recalled. “It’s easier for me as a young nurse than it is for others who have been here 30 years. I work closely with nurses who have worked here 35 to 50 years, so it’s like starting over for them.”

Northern Light Health announced March 13 that Inland and its associated offices and clinics will close because of high operational costs, low reimbursement rates and ongoing struggles recruiting and retaining staff. May 27 will be the last day for patients at the hospital. Northern Light Continuing Care, Lakewood, located next to the hospital on Kennedy Memorial Drive, is not included as part of the closure. The 36-acre campus will be sold, officials said.

The closure will also affect the former Inland employees who now work for Compass One. Those jobs were transferred to another company as part of cost-saving measures announced in October 2024.

Godin has worked at Inland since she was 16, starting as a certified nurse’s assistant and becoming a registered nurse about eight months ago. Many family members also work or have worked at Inland, she said.

For Godin, the hospital has been like a second home, and her fellow employees, like family. They’ve held baby showers for each other, gathered for going-away parties when staff members retired, and raised funds for a fellow employee who lost her home.

“You don’t get that everywhere,” Godin said. “It’s sad to see that go.”

As worried as employees are for each other, they are even more concerned for the community, they said.

“I speak for a lot of nurses — our biggest concern is the patients in the area that are losing their health care,” Godin said. “We’re in an area where the resources for the people are limited anyway.”

She said severance packages are available for employees who stay through a certain time, but she is in a different category because she is due to give birth in May and will go on maternity leave. She hopes to land a job in the Northern Light system and has been interviewing for jobs, although getting one likely means traveling a farther distance to work, perhaps even as far as Bangor.

Godin holds no animosity toward Northern Light, which she said has been a great employer, and the management has been empathetic.

“They have been wonderful and I know they’re having a hard time themselves, and I think they did the best they could,” she said.

More layoffs

While Northern Light announced 309 layoffs as a result of the closure, that number doesn’t reflect the 500 workers at Inland employed by companies Northern Light contracts with for housekeeping, food service, laboratory and other positions. When the hospital closes, they will have to find other jobs too.

One worker who asked not to be identified for fear it would affect her future employment or possible severance estimated 100 more people will be laid off when the hospital closes in June.

“We all work under different umbrellas but we are not being counted in the 309,” she said.

The Waterville woman started working for Northern Light about three years ago. A year later, the hospital transitioned her to a company that subcontracted with Northern Light. That company has told its workers that the goal is to redeploy them to positions within its network, she said. They could be trained for jobs unrelated to the ones they have now, and because her employer still subcontracts with Northern Light, they could get jobs within that system.

She said they have the option to apply for jobs in-house, and her employer will host a private job fair soon.

“I feel confident at this point that something will come about, but I don’t like the uncertainty,” she said.

She said she was absolutely shocked when she and fellow workers were told March 16 Inland was closing and they would lose their jobs. Some are still angry, some scared.

“It’s just been mixed emotions,” she said.

Other workers were reluctant to speak publicly and be identified by name. One employee who works on the clinical side of the hospital said morale is very low.

“It just sucks that the community is losing the hospital and primary care physician practices,” he said. “It’s criminal to leave so many people without providers. People will die as a result. Leaving my friends here is going to be tough. Some of us have been here through COVID and have given more and more over the last few years, and to have Northern Light pull the plug on us is just awful.”

A woman who has worked as a nurse for the last two years said the announcement came as a complete surprise to everyone.

“It didn’t seem like there was any possible way that could happen because the community needs it so badly,” she said. “It’s really about the people that we take care of, and it’s such a disservice to close. It’s beyond comprehension.”

She said she has heard some 20,000 patients will lose their health care when the hospital and offices close, and other providers in the community can’t absorb that many patients.

Inland employees are having to take days off to look for other jobs, which places stress on those working shifts with not enough help.

“It’s awful,” she said. “It’s a really bad situation. The whole vibe, everywhere, is palpable. It’s really taken the love and care and desire out of a lot of people. It’s really, really hardened them because it’s literally destroying so many things.”

She said she has been offered a job elsewhere but the commute would be much longer, and because she has children, it will be difficult. The majority of employees who have applied for jobs are not hearing back from employers, she said.

Beyond that, she said a crisis is brewing with diminishing health care services, and when it comes to fruition, it will be bad. Patients who can’t find doctors, services and medicines they need to stay alive face dire consequences.

“People will literally lose their lives because of this,” she said.

Brian Gillis, a doctor of osteopathy who serves on the board of trustees for Inland, said when the hospital closes and patents need immediate care, they can go to other hospitals, but he is most worried about patients with no access to primary care. Many will be severely affected because they need ongoing tests for diseases such as colon, breast and cervical cancers. If people with high blood pressure, for instance, have no primary care and don’t get medications, they are at risk for stroke or heart attack.

“The complexity of delivery of care through primary care offices is way more complex than people understand,” he said.

Gillis is in private practice but has privileges at Inland and MaineGeneral Health in Augusta, and serves on the state Medical Board of Osteopathic Licensure. Getting privileges at area hospitals to do surgeries is difficult as they say they don’t have the space, he said.

“I had to take my patients to Lewiston,” he said. “St. Mary’s hospital gave me privileges immediately.”

Gillis said Inland’s closure presents a real emergency for the community from a medical perspective because the transition of patients to other providers has not been thought through. He also worries for employees, including physicians who are on staff. With Northern Light having lost millions of dollars, he wonders if this is just the beginning.

“If it’s the tip of the iceberg, people’s retirement could be forfeited if the whole system goes down,” he said.

 ‘I’m hurt. I’m sad’

Charles Ring, 34, of Canaan, has worked three years at Northern Light in housekeeping. He said he wants to continue to clean for a living and has applied to school districts for janitorial work.

“I guess right now I’m praying and hoping a school will give me a chance,” Ring said.

He said he and other employees of Compass One Healthcare, which subcontracts for Northern Light, have been told they can receive unemployment benefits but he really wants to find a job he can stay in until retirement age. Having insurance and money for retirement is critical, he said. Facing unemployment is frightening.

“I like my job,” he said. “I was hoping to stay there until I was 65 or 66. I’m terrified of losing my vehicle and the place where I’m living. I’m hurt. I’m sad.”

Ring is also frightened for patients who will lose their health care.

Terri Glidden will have worked in the Northern Light system in food and nutrition for four years in August, she said. She started at Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft then moved back to her native Waterville in June 2023 to work at Inland. On Jan. 1 this year, Compass One took over employees in food service and other areas, so she became an employee of that company.

Glidden, 61, said she has been interviewing for jobs, but knows that, at her age, they are likely hard to come by.

“I have several applications out,” she said. “Honestly, I work for Compass One now and they are good. They’ve really been on our side, meeting with us, upper management. They are also with Colby College. Most of my applications are in at Colby.”

Glidden said she really hopes to work close to home.

“I don’t make a lot of money, so the travel would be difficult,” she said. “The cost of gas alone would definitely cut into my budget.”

She thought she was going to be able to retire at Inland, she said.

“We’re like a family,” she said. “I feel terrible for the patients.”

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