Plans to Build a New Hospital in Germantown
A Message from the CEO
 |
Kevin
J. Sexton,
Holy Cross Hospital President and Chief Executive Officer |
Dear Neighbor:
Life in Montgomery County has changed a great
deal since 1979. We’ve
grown from a relatively quiet suburb to Maryland’s most populous
county – increasing from about 580,000 residents to more than
950,000.
Yet, one thing hasn’t changed in all that time – there
has not been a new hospital built in our county in 30 years.
Now Montgomery County has an opportunity to change that. In the face
of a growing and aging population that will require significantly more
hospital care, the time has come for us to move health care forward
by building a new upcounty hospital.
Right now:
- Our county is aging – more than 70 percent of our future
growth will be from people over 65, who are the biggest users of
hospital care.
- The Germantown/Gaithersburg area has, by far, the largest concentration
of people (over 230,000) without a hospital in the state, and it
is aging twice as fast as the county as a whole.
- Our county already experiences substantial times when ambulances
must bypass the closest hospital due to a shortage of beds.
- In addition to a shortage of beds, we face a significant shortage
of nurses and other health care professionals.
As you may know, both Holy Cross Hospital and Adventist HealthCare
have proposals before the Maryland Health Care Commission to build
new hospitals in Northern Montgomery County. Obviously, we at Holy
Cross are partial to our proposal to partner with Montgomery College-Germantown
to build a teaching hospital that will help train the next generation
of nurses and health care workers. And, of course, Adventist HealthCare
believes strongly in its proposed Clarksburg project.
Regardless of which proposal we might support, however, there is one
thing that all of us in Montgomery County can get behind: We urgently
need a new upcounty hospital. And failing to achieve that objective
would be a tragic loss for our County.
Therefore, we are asking all Montgomery County
residents – including
our elected leaders – to come together to support a new upcounty
hospital, using the objective processes of the Maryland Health Care
Commission to choose the proposal that best serves our community.
Moving as quickly as possible to build a new hospital is critical.
So we hope you will join us in encouraging the Montgomery County government
to ensure a smooth process for whichever hospital proposal the Health
Care Commission selects. Whether it ends up being Holy Cross Hospital
or Adventist HealthCare, we need a new hospital.
Sincerely,
Kevin J. Sexton
President and Chief Executive Officer