The Edmund N. Ervin Pediatric Center in Augusta — part of MaineGeneral Medical Center — is closing its doors after 67 years of service to families of children with developmental and behavioral disabilities. This is a terrible loss to our families and community. Just four months ago, the center was thriving. This sudden, unannounced closure leaves us wondering what happened.

Edmund N. Ervin, a pediatrician in Waterville, had a vision for children with disabilities and their families to experience the world as a better place. In the mid to late 1950s, for the first time, physicians could test for and diagnose Down syndrome and congenital hypothyroidism. Dr. Ervin wanted to be able to identify these children and help improve their lives. He founded the Edmund N. Ervin Pediatric Center in 1958 with a federal grant supported by Sen. Edmund Muskie.

Dr. Ervin used the funds to assemble a team of professionals that could provide services to address a child’s physical, emotional, speech and motor delays. The program focused on particularly young children under age 5 years and was one of only two such programs in New England.

Dr. John Salvato joined the Pediatric Center as the medical director in 1988 and grew the program to include child psychologists and behavioral therapists to diagnose children with learning disorders, school behavioral problems, language and motor delays, autism spectrum disorders and ADHD.

Dr. Salvato and Glen Davis, Ph.D., worked together to develop an annual child development and behavior conference at Colby College, which brought nationally recognized leaders in children’s development and behavior to train providers in our state in evidence-based treatments, ensuring that children in Maine had the best care available.

I joined the center in 1998 and with Dr. Davis and Mark Rains, Ph.D., developed a unique program aimed at improving care for children entering state protective custody. Subsequent studies done by the Muskie School showed that our programs improved behavioral and physical health outcomes for foster children, while saving the state tens of thousands of dollars preventing unnecessary care and services.

Dr. Lindsey Tweed became the center’s medical director in 2021, the fourth in 63 years. Dr. Tweed brought a focus on population health, ensuring integration of behavioral health with primary care and growing our number of therapists trained in therapies that are known to work. These services came right at the time of greatest need at the end of COVID.

The Edmund N. Ervin Pediatric Center has improved health and developmental outcomes for children with developmental and behavioral disabilities, provided cost savings for the state of Maine and provided training in therapies for children that help avoid unnecessary medications and medical interventions.

The Pediatric Center’s three interdisciplinary clinics: 1) Developmental Evaluation Clinic; 2) Pediatric Behavioral Medicine Clinic; and 3) Pediatric Rapid Evaluation Program are family-focused and comprehensive. Our interdisciplinary teams address complex psychological, medical and neurological problems that affect behavior and emotional adjustment or result in problems functioning in family, school or community.

Over the years, the Pediatric Center has helped tens of thousands of young children and families with extremely complex neurodevelopmental problems including cerebral palsy, premature birth, prenatal exposure to narcotics, alcohol and other substances, genetic disorders and children exposed to family violence and parental mental health and substance use disorders. We help children and their families experience their world as a better place.

Why, then, is MaineGeneral Medical Center closing the Edmund N. Ervin Pediatric Center? It may be related to the fact that 80% of the children cared for at the Pediatric Center have MaineCare as their primary source of insurance. Medicaid is notoriously poor in paying hospitals and health care systems.

We also understand that, according to the Wall Street Journal, many health care systems around the country are closing programs supported by Medicaid insurance because the current federal government has not paid the bill for March or April.

MaineGeneral Medical Center is a not-for-profit organization, and it has invested in the community by providing a tremendous and relied-upon resource for Maine children and families, and for primary care physicians, schools and child mental health providers in Maine.

Even if the bills weren’t paid, senior leadership should have communicated with the community before ending the program and closing the doors. The loss of this program is terrible for our families, our children and our state.