USCareCheck

CMS certification 201302

Lincolnhealth

35 Miles Street, Damariscotta, ME 04543

Critical Access Hospitals Emergency services Birthing-friendly

Lincolnhealth has a CMS overall rating of 3 out of 5 stars. 83% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. Of the 10 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on 1 and worse on none. Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 24 min in its emergency department before leaving (US median 2 h 42 min).

Every figure on this page is published by CMS; we arrange and explain it, and score nothing ourselves.

CMS overall rating 3/5 CMS summary of quality measures
Would definitely recommend 83% US average 71%
Patient survey rating 4/5 336 completed surveys
Compared with the nation 0 worse 1 better of 10 measures CMS could compare

What patients said

Answers from patients who stayed here, collected by CMS in the national HCAHPS survey: 336 completed surveys, 30% response rate, Oct 2024 – Sep 2025.

Would definitely recommend the hospital
83%
ME 72% · US 71% · 5 of 5 stars
Rated the hospital 9 or 10 out of 10
83%
ME 73% · US 72% · 5 of 5 stars
Nurses always communicated well
87%
ME 83% · US 80% · 5 of 5 stars
Doctors always communicated well
86%
ME 83% · US 80% · 4 of 5 stars
Staff always explained new medicines
69%
ME 65% · US 62% · 4 of 5 stars
Given information about recovering at home
91%
ME 88% · US 86% · 4 of 5 stars
Room was always clean
80%
ME 75% · US 74% · 4 of 5 stars
Always quiet at night
64%
ME 57% · US 60% · 4 of 5 stars

This hospital Maine average US average

Emergency department

How long emergency patients spent here and how some time-critical care went, from CMS's timely and effective care measures, Oct 2024 – Sep 2025. CMS classes this emergency department's patient volume as low; busier departments tend to have longer times, so the national median for departments of the same volume is shown too. These are medians over a year of visits, not a live wait time.

Measure This hospital ME US
Median time in the emergency department before leaving Lower is better · 372 visits sampled · US median for EDs of the same volume: 2 h 3 min 2 h 24 min 2 h 40 min 2 h 42 min
Median time for psychiatric and mental health patients Lower is better · 11 visits sampled 4 h 14 min 4 h 39 min 4 h 17 min
Left before being seen Lower is better · 14,620 patients 1% 3% 2%
Stroke symptoms: brain scan read within 45 minutes Higher is better · 17 patients 82% 59% 69%

Deaths

How many patients died within 30 days of admission, adjusted by CMS for how sick they were. Lower is better. Data from Jul 2022 – Jun 2025.

Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
All patients, hospital-wide 490 cases Too few cases 4.2% 3.9%
Heart failure 71 cases Too few cases 12.4% 11.1%
Pneumonia 64 cases Too few cases 15% 15.2%
Stroke 44 cases Too few cases 17.2% 11.9%
COPD 30 cases Too few cases 9.3% 8.6%

2 more measures had too few cases here to report.

Infections caught in the hospital

Standardized infection ratio: 1.0 means as many infections as CMS predicted for a hospital like this one. Lower is better. Data from Oct 2024 – Sep 2025.

1 no different
Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
C. diff intestinal infections No different 0.39 likely 0.02 – 1.92 1

5 more measures had too few cases here to report.

Readmissions and return visits

How often patients had to come back to a hospital after going home. Lower is better. Data from Jul 2023 – Jun 2025.

2 no different
Measure CMS comparison This hospital National
Readmitted after heart failure 118 cases Too few cases 20.5% 21.3%
Readmitted after pneumonia 133 cases Too few cases 15.9% 17.3%
Readmitted after COPD 50 cases Too few cases 20.2% 20%
Days back in hospital after heart failure 81 cases Too few cases -30.6 days per 100 —
Days back in hospital after pneumonia 71 cases Too few cases -33.3 days per 100 —
Hospital admissions during outpatient chemotherapy 43 cases No different 9.5 per 100 likely 6.4 per 100 – 13.7 per 100 10.7 per 100
ER visits during outpatient chemotherapy 43 cases No different 5.3 per 100 likely 3.3 per 100 – 8.3 per 100 5.4 per 100

7 more measures had too few cases here to report.

Not reported for this hospital

CMS had too few cases here to publish results for complications. That is common at small, rural and specialty hospitals, and says nothing either way about quality.

Clinicians registered at this address

92 clinicians give this hospital's street address as their practice location in NPPES, the federal provider registry. The same address can take in offices and clinics in the building, and a listing does not prove admitting privileges or current employment.

Specialty Clinicians
Physical Therapist 21
Nurse Anesthetist, Certified Registered 15
Occupational Therapist 9
Hospitalist 6
Dietitian, Registered 5
Emergency Medical Services 5
Emergency Medicine 5
Physician Assistant 5
Family Medicine 3
Pharmacist 3
Internal Medicine 2
Speech-Language Pathologist 2

First 12 alphabetically

How to read this page

  • Everything here is published by CMS on Care Compare. We arrange it and explain it; the star ratings and the better / worse verdicts are CMS's, not ours.
  • “No different” is the most common result on most measures at most hospitals. CMS only calls a result better or worse when the difference from the national rate is statistically clear.
  • Death, complication and readmission rates are adjusted by CMS for how sick patients were, so hospitals that treat sicker patients can be compared fairly.
  • Infection results are ratios: 1.0 means as many infections as CMS predicted for a hospital like this one, below 1.0 is fewer.
  • These are hospital-wide results. They do not rate an individual doctor, nurse or department, and they are not medical advice.

CMS Care Compare data retrieved 4 Oct 2026, refreshed weekly. Where this data comes from and how we handle it · Report an error

Common questions about Lincolnhealth

Is Lincolnhealth a good hospital?

Lincolnhealth has a CMS overall rating of 3 out of 5 stars. Of the 10 death, complication, infection and readmission measures CMS could compare, it does better than the nation on 1 and worse on none. These are hospital-wide results published by CMS; they do not rate individual doctors or departments.

Would patients recommend Lincolnhealth?

83% of patients who answered CMS's national survey would definitely recommend it, against a US average of 71%. The figure comes from 336 completed HCAHPS surveys.

How long is the wait in the Lincolnhealth emergency room?

Emergency patients spend a median of 2 h 24 min in its emergency department before leaving (US median 2 h 42 min). Among US emergency departments with low patient volume, like this one, the median is 2 h 3 min. 1% of emergency patients left before being seen (US 2%). These are medians over a year of visits, not a live wait time.