Holy Cross to unveil $90M, 210,000-square-foot expansion

Friday, Sept. 23, 2005

Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, which recently completed a four-year, $90 million expansion project, plans to celebrate its renovations today with county and state officials and Saturday with area residents.

‘‘It’s really been enhanced, not only for our patients, but for our staff,” said Mike Hall, a hospital spokesman. ‘‘It’s better service in a more pleasing environment.”

The expansion involved adding 210,000 square feet and renovating about 155,000 square feet of existing space. More than half the hospital is now new or renovated. This is the largest expansion of the hospital since 1978. The hospital was established in 1963.

Holy Cross is owned by Trinity Health of Novi, Mich., the nation’s third largest Roman Catholic health-care system, according to the hospital’s Web site. Trinity reported a profit of $240 million in fiscal 2004, up from $111 million the previous year.

The expansion enabled the number of private rooms to triple, said Hall, to about 140, with more private rooms devoted to maternity care. The hospital has about 440 total beds.

Holy Cross had an operating budget of $241 million and revenues of $244 million in fiscal 2003, the most recent figures available on its Web site.

Holy Cross, touted for its maternal and newborn services, has also made improvements to other areas of the hospital, including its oncology unit. The expansion will allow the hospital to take on more patients.

Holy Cross serves about 200,000 inpatients and outpatients annually. The hospital is anticipating about 80,000 births this year.

The final phase of the project, completed in early August, includes a glass-enclosed concourse across the front of the building, designed to improve access to ambulatory care services on the first floor. There are also two express-service elevators to the hospital’s new maternal and newborn services, including 21 labor and delivery rooms and 68 maternity suites.

That improvement will allow better access to and navigation around the hospital for patients and staff, Hall said. It also separates outpatient from inpatient services.

The new lobby includes a gift shop, coffee shop and patient registration.

The renovations also allow for more private patient rooms.

‘‘We’ve more than tripled the number of private rooms throughout the hospital,” Hall said. ‘‘... When you’re sick, it’s not always pleasant being in a room with someone else, depending on what you’re going through. ... It’s a time to not have to be concerned about who else is in the room.”

On the west side of Holy Cross, there is a new professional and community education center with audio⁄visual technology for the hospital’s clinical teaching programs and community health education classes.

‘‘We can video conference a surgery going on to teach residents and nursing students about various things,” Hall said about the facility’s new equipment.

That facility, Hall said, will be available for public use.

A new wing houses the inpatient oncology unit of the Holy Cross Cancer Institute. The hospital also has a new emergency center and surgical care unit, as well as four floors of physician offices and a new four-level garage with 520 parking spaces.