Down East Community Hospital is a 25 bed acute care facility that offers state-of-the art technology and specialty services almost unheard of in a small rural hospital. Our hospital serves the need of our immediate community in Machias and all of Washington County, bordered by New Brunswick to the northeast and the Bay of Fundy. The foundation for Down East Community Hospital was laid in 1957 when a group a dedicated citizens studied the feasibility of establishing a new medical facility in the rural Washington County Maine. Down East Community Hospital was incorporated on January 5, 1960 and after the hospital was constructed, the one-story hospital with thirty six beds and ten bassinets welcomed its first patient on December 2, 1964.