Adventist Announces New Hospital in Clarksburg

Following is a press release from Adventist announcing its plan to move forward with a new hospital in Clarksburg. The fact that Holy Cross has already announced its intention to open a new hospital in Germantown guarantees an interesting competition between the two giant health care providers. Will the state allow both proposed hospitals to be built?

For Immediate Release
December 2, 2008

Contact: Tom Grant
tgrant@AdventistHealthCare.com
301-315-3356

Adventist HealthCare Announces Plans to Move Forward with Comprehensive Clarksburg Medical Campus, New Hospital

Organization will invite partners interested in jointly developing hospital to improve access to care in rapidly growing part of region

Rockville, MD – With major land-use approvals nearly complete, Adventist HealthCare today is announcing it will move forward with its longstanding plans to build a comprehensive medical campus and hospital in Clarksburg and will invite other health-care providers to collaborate on the project.

Adventist HealthCare has already begun discussions with potential health-care partners interested in working on the project and may reach an agreement over the next few months. Hospital officials expect to file for state regulatory approval in 2009.

“We believe the hospital and medical campus in the Cabin Branch section of Clarksburg will improve access to health care in the fastest growing regions of our community and be an extraordinary resource for the communities we serve,” said William G. “Bill” Robertson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Adventist HealthCare. “Developing this project with other providers could expand the availability of health-care services. Collaboration is a way to enhance, rather than detract from, existing health-care resources.”

Adventist HealthCare has worked for six years (see attached timeline) with Montgomery County planners, adjoining landowners and the community to complete the various stages of the land-use process. Plans for the 60-acre site, located at Route 121 and Interstate 270, include a 100-bed hospital, medical office buildings for physicians and outpatient medical services, a nursing home and a day-care center.

Clarksburg, along with its neighboring community to the north, Urbana in Frederick County, is experiencing rapid population growth and will need expanded health-care services. The site is situated nearly halfway on the Interstate 270 corridor between two existing hospitals – Shady Grove Adventist to the south and Frederick Memorial Hospital to the north – which minimizes its impact on the region’s existing health-care resources.

“Adventist HealthCare has long met the health-care needs of residents in the Gaithersburg community,” said Sidney Katz, Mayor of Gaithersburg. “As an organization we have found them to be open and forward thinking. Their expansion into the Clarksburg area provides an opportunity for Adventist HealthCare to leverage existing health-care resources and to lay the groundwork for meeting the future needs of a growing region.”

The health-care campus is planned as part of a mixed use community – with active adult housing, retail and office space, restaurants, a hotel and nearly 2,000 dwelling units. It is located in an area where a hospital and all of its related facilities could be planned in advance with no adverse impact on surrounding businesses and residents.

“Adventist HealthCare’s careful, deliberate planning approach promises a plan for the health-care campus where pedestrian access and traffic flow are each priorities,” said Kathie Hulley, President of the Clarksburg Civic Association. “The campus relates thoroughly to the nearby residential community.”

In 2001, Adventist HealthCare recognized the emerging need for additional health-care services in the upper part of Montgomery County. Hospital officials embarked on a journey to expand its Shady Grove Adventists Hospital facility, which was completed in 2008; develop an emergency center in Germantown, which opened in 2006; and acquire property in Cabin Branch for the future campus.

“Adventist HealthCare has worked diligently to meet the health-care needs of the upcounty community, starting with the opening of Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in 1979 and continuing with its work in Germantown and now Clarksburg – always responding to our growing needs and meeting them,” said Randy Scritchfield, an upcounty business owner and community leader.

Adventist HealthCare submitted a preapplication plan in 2002, followed by a rezoning of the land to accommodate the hospital and other uses, along with a detailed Development Plan showing a hospital and various related medical buildings and facilities.

In 2004, the Planning Board approved the Preliminary Plan of Subdivision for Cabin Branch, including the hospital and related uses. Although delayed because of the planning process in general and Clarksburg in particular, the Infrastructure Site Plan for Cabin Branch was approved in 2007. Earlier this year, a detailed Site Plan for the first phase of development at Cabin Branch was approved and plans for subsequent phases are pending.

In addition, the location fits in with the goals of Montgomery County Park and Planning and the County Department of Health and Human Services to explore ways that land-use planning can be used as a tool to improve health outcomes.

“The Cabin Branch model, where health-care services and concepts are built into the community from the beginning, provides an ideal opportunity to examine the link between the health status and opportunities of a community and land-use planning,” Robertson said.




Update: The Post has more.