For years, upper Montgomery County residents needing emergency care have faced a very limited choice: trek southward to Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, or trudge 30 miles north to Frederick Memorial Hospital.
Either way, heavy traffic volume has made getting there a challenge. Once at the hospitals, overcrowding has been a substantial obstacle for patient care, especially at Shady Grove, where last year doctors treated 90,000 emergency patients, the second highest number in the state.
But things are about to change.
Next week, a new, stand-alone emergency facility in Germantown will open with the hope of easing the burden on the Shady Grove and Frederick Memorial, as well as Montgomery County’s Fire and
Rescue Service.
County Council member Mike Knapp, who has worked to get the center off the ground for more than two years, said the Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center in Germantown will be a crucial extension of the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital.
“Between Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and Frederick Memorial, there are over a halfa million people. On a good day with no traffic it takes them 20 to 30 minutes to get to either hospital, and when there’s traffic it could be 45 minutes,” Knapp said. “This will basically split the difference so it will allow us to have better access.”
According to authorities, the 17,000-square-foot, 21-bed facility will provide the same emergency care residents are accustomed to at any standard hospital. The only difference is that patients needing to stay overnight will be transported to Shady Grove, since the center’s beds will be for emergency medical ailments only.
Shady Grove’s primary hospital and the stand-alone emergency center also will be linked through technology. A Picture Archiving Communication System will provide digital X-ray images that make it possible for doctors at each to compare notes on patient diagnosis.
Knapp said Germantown was selected as the location for the new facility because of its ever-growing population, now numbering 100,000 residents, as well as its proximity to popular recreational centers and parks that draw in even more people. “It has both a big population center and a lot of significant activities nearby in which people are prone to injury,” he explained.
Monday will be the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the emergency center, with the facility fully opening to patients on Aug. 7.
If You Go …
Ribbon-cutting for Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center
When: 11 a.m., Monday, July 31
Where: 19731 Germantown Road (across from Germantown Town Center and just west of I-270)
» Gov. Robert Ehrlich and other legislators are tentatively scheduled to attend.
