Holy Cross plans hospital in Germantown

Proposal includes ER and ob-gyn service and a clinic in Gaithersburg

The Gaithersburg clinic is expected to open by the end of the year; a similar facility is set for Wheaton in late 2009.

Silver Spring-based Holy Cross filed letters of intent for the projects on Friday, said Pamela Barclay, director of the Maryland Health Care Commission's Center for Hospital Services. An application is due Oct. 3, she said, and the proposal will undergo four to six months of review. County planners also have to approve the project.

The Germantown facility will serve the county's booming senior population, reduce travel times for upcounty patients and provide educational opportunities for Montgomery College students, said Kevin Sexton, Holy Cross president and CEO. Although the plans have not been approved, Holy Cross hopes to complete the project by 2012, he said. Costs and financing for the new hospital will be determined over the next several months.

The need for a new campus arose after Holy Cross officials realized space was limited for a planned expansion of its Silver Spring hospital, Sexton said. The Gaithersburg-Germantown area was selected in part for its growing elderly population.

"We looked at places with the greatest needs outside of Silver Spring," Sexton said, adding that the opportunity to build the hospital on a college campus was "above expectations." "The big problem with access today is the uninsured, but the problem in the future will be with seniors."

County leaders touted the proposal as a win for the rapidly expanding upcounty, where the closest hospital is Rockville's 275-bed Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. According to Holy Cross, 28 percent of its patients live in the upcounty.

†"Anything that expands health care in the upcounty is a good thing," said County Council President Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown, who learned of the proposal over the weekend. "ÖI think we are tremendously underserved."

Sen. Robert J. Garagiola (D-Dist. 15) of Germantown added a note of caution.

"The only pause or cause for concern would be its effect on the Shady Grove Emergency Center," which opened in 2006, Garagiola said. "I know a lot of investment went into that, and I think we need to be careful as we go forward that the population supports the hospital."

Demand for emergency care at Holy Cross last year increased 13 percent, according to the hospital, and a 2006 study by Press Ganey Associates of Indiana found that Maryland's hospital emergency rooms had the second longest wait times in the nation. That same year, Shady Grove Adventist Hospital had the second busiest emergency room in Maryland.

If approved, the 93-bed acute care hospital will sit on 23 acres on Montgomery College's planned 40- to 50-acre Science and Technology Business Park on a future extension of Goldenrod Lane, Sexton said. There will be an obstetrics and gynecology clinic, an emergency room and possibly psychiatric services. The project is modeled after the county-owned Shady Grove Life Sciences Center, which includes Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. The 23 acres requested takes future expansions into account.

The new hospital would allow the college to expand its nursing program to Germantown, said Hercules Pinkney, vice president and provost of the Germantown campus. Montgomery College's Silver Spring-Takoma Park campus houses the Holy Cross Hospital Health Center.

†Germantown students could help with research, work there part time or participate in internships, Pinkney said. Shared laboratories and classroom space are a possibility, and doctors may also visit the school as guest lecturers.

"We don't get involved in things unless there's a direct benefit for the students," Pinkney said, noting that the college's Board of Trustees must approve the deal. "ÖEverybody's excited, but nothing is set in stone yet."

Holy Cross and Rockville's Foulger-Pratt Development Inc., manager of the business park and other properties such as the Holy Cross Medical Office Building in Silver Spring, have signed a letter of intent, said Bryant Foulger, a principal at the company, and the companies will meet over the next several days to work out a lease.

Foulger-Pratt was approached by Holy Cross' broker and had several meetings beginning in May, Foulger said, although it didn't learn the prospective tenant's identity until later. The company was approached by Kaiser Permanente about two years ago, but the discussions fell through, he said.

"We could see there were terrific synergies between a medical facility and what the college does," Foulger said. "It's a good match."

So do others.

"I think this is a recognition that a need continues to grow in Montgomery County," Del. Brian J. Feldman (D-Dist. 15) of Potomac said after learning of the proposal, adding that it may face opposition from competitors. "Nothing's a done deal, there's a lot of politics. Just filing an intent to build a hospital does not make it so. ÖThere's a business aspect to this, and it wouldn't surprise me if other hospitals were upset."

Adventist HealthCare officials question why Holy Cross decided to open a Germantown hospital two years after opposing† Shady Grove Adventist Hospital's new patient tower in Rockville.

"It's very clear their primary service area is in the downcounty service area," said William G. "Bill" Robertson, president and CEO of Adventist HealthCare, which includes Shady Grove and Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park. "They are clearly moving beds in their proposal many miles away from where they provide the majority of their care."

Adventist HealthCare has had plans since 2001 to build a health care campus in Clarksburg to serve the upcounty and southern Frederick County, Robertson said.

"We've clearly been working to address the needs of the community as the community expands and strengthen the safety net of the community," he said.

Staff Writer C. Benjamin Ford contributed to this report.