The state will conduct a comparative review of two hospitals that have been proposed in the upcounty.

Adventist HealthCare, which has been planning a hospital in Clarksburg for several years, has been petitioning state lawmakers and the Maryland Health Care Commission for a comparative review since Holy Cross Hospital's announcement in August that it had begun the formal review process to build a hospital on Montgomery College's Germantown campus.

Holy Cross officials opposed a state bill that would have required the commission to conduct a comparative review of the hospitals. The reversal comes because Holy Cross was concerned that Adventist would benefit by seeing Holy Cross' proposal before filing its application, according to Holy Cross officials. The bill, also opposed by the commission, stalled in committee.

Holy Cross said last month that it would be willing to participate in a comparative review under certain conditions, and the commission agreed to the proposed solution in a May 18 letter from Commissioner Reviewer Marilyn Moon. Moon will review both projects at the same time and determine which hospital, if any, should be built. She will consider cost-effectiveness, the financial viability of the proposed hospital and impact on existing health care providers.

"We're happy we have a good consensus and can move forward with the comparative review," said Pamela Barclay, director of the commission's Center for Hospital Services. "[Building a new hospital] is an important issue, and we'll have a lot of discussion throughout the review."

Adventist and Holy Cross officials said they were satisfied.

"Any time you're making a major decision about building a hospital, you should look at multiple options," according to Robert Jepson, vice president of government relations and public policy for Adventist.

Commission officials have changed the agency's procedures for soliciting letters of intent from health care providers interested in building hospitals. The commission previously only accepted letters of intent twice a year, and Adventist officials argued that the system discouraged competing projects.

Adventist filed its letter of intent in February, putting it six months behind Holy Cross, which also plans to expand its Silver Spring hospital. Adventist also submitted a letter of intent in February to build a new Washington Adventist Hospital in the White Oak area of Silver Spring and Montgomery General Hospital in Olney filed to expand an addition that is under construction.

The commission now accepts letters of intent, the first step in the review process, for new hospitals all year as long as the commission determines there is a need for additional hospital capacity, according to Barclay. Once the letter is published by the commission, health care providers have 30 days to file their own letters if they want to participate in a comparative review.

Replacement hospitals, new construction or renovation and increases in acute care bed capacity at existing hospitals are still subject to the commission's review schedule, Barclay said.