Dr. Sarah Leonhard, who heads Greater Baden Medical Services, remembered the troubles some area residents went through to get treatment when she first joined the Brandywine-based nonprofit in 1995.
“People came from far and wide, from Laurel, Arlington and Hyattsville,” Leonhard said. “People got scared coming down, and some would get lost.”
That’s why, Leonhard said, the organization, which caters to providing primary health care services to the uninsured and underinsured, had been looking to move from its original location on Baden Westwood Road in Brandywine and to a more easily accessible location. That dream came to fruition as the group held a ribbon-cutting Wednesday for its new $6.1 million facility just off U.S. 301, a major thoroughfare, and across from the Brandywine Crossing shopping center.
Even without an increase in staffing, Leonhard said, the facility has allowed GBMS to treat 75 percent more patients on a regular basis since part of the building opened in February. The building is slated to be completely open within the next month, officials said.
“It’s already difficult to find primary care in this region, and if you have no insurance that makes it that much more difficult,” Leonhard said. “The move has made a world of difference for people looking for primary care.”
GBMS, which operates similar clinics in Oxon Hill, Suitland, Capitol Heights, Nanjemoy and Leonardtown, charges on a sliding scale for uninsured patients. It offers primary care, pediatric care and some dental procedures.
Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D) said the new facility is a step forward in the state’s fight to improve the health care safety net for the uninsured and underinsured and lower the state’s disparity in health care access. The state of Maryland provided $1.8 million of the $6.1 million in funding for the construction of the facility.
“It’s troubling that, while Maryland has the second-highest number of primary care physicians per capita in the country, we are 35th in terms of geographical disparities of service,” Brown said.
Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach, whose district includes the facility, said GBMS is a prime example of what health care should be like.
“Providers ask if you have insurance, if you have health care, what your salary is, but here, nobody gets turned away,” Miller said. “There’s no excuse that the greatest democracy in the world, the richest country in the world, that people go without health care. Everyone must have access to affordable care.”
Del. James Proctor (D-Dist. 27-A) of Brandywine, whose district includes the new location, said the opening of the new facility was bittersweet for him. He remembered, as a teacher and local civic association leader in the 1960s, planning the complex where GBMS originally operated, alongside the Baden Library and Baden Elementary School.
“I have mixed feelings, but to see this ...” Proctor said, as he gazed at the building. “For what this provides more of, we need it. We do have this big problem with health care, and we need primary care physicians.”
ewagner@gazette.net
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