Holy Cross Hospital Obtains Local Approval to Develop New Hospital in Germantown

For Immediate Release: October 20, 2011

(Silver Spring, Md) – The Montgomery County Planning Board today gave unanimous approval of Holy Cross Hospital’s plans for development of a hospital on the Germantown campus of Montgomery College. Earlier this year, Holy Cross received approval from the Maryland Health Care Commission, the state’s regulatory body charged with reviewing and approving the hospital’s application for a Certificate of Need. Holy Cross now will obtain local permits to begin construction on the first new hospital in Montgomery County in 35 years.

The new, six-story hospital will have 93-beds and encompass 237,000 square-feet of space offering medical, surgical, obstetric, emergency and psychiatric care. All patient rooms will be private to enhance patient safety and family and visitor comfort, and the hospital will be constructed using sustainable building techniques.

The new hospital will bring expanded health care services to residents of upper Montgomery County, double the number of nursing graduates and address other healthcare workforce shortages in partnership with Montgomery College, and generate economic development in the county and state. A projected 1,100 construction jobs will be required to build the new hospital, and, in the long-term, 1,500 permanent jobs will be required to operate the hospital and medical office building. As the anchor of the new Montgomery College Life Sciences Center, the new hospital project has the potential to spur more than 5,700 jobs to the area.

In early October, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett signed an Executive Order designating the project as the first Strategic Economic Development Project in the county, which directed executive branch agencies to treat the new project as a priority and provide immediate attention during the planning, development review and permitting processes.

Construction is slated to begin later this fall. Holy Cross expects to open the new hospital in Germantown in mid-2014.

Holy Cross Hospital is one of the largest hospitals in the state of Maryland with more than 30,000 annual admissions. Holy Cross is a faith-based, mission-driven teaching hospital serving primarily the residents of Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. The Joint Commission recognized Holy Cross Hospital as a “Top Performer on Key Quality Measures in 2010,” the only hospital in Maryland and Washington area to receive this designation. The hospital is a member of Trinity Health of Novi, Michigan, the nation’s fourth largest Catholic healthcare system.

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