Holy Cross wins battle for hotly contested Maryland county
GERMANTOWN, MD – Officials with Rockville, Md.-based Adventist HealthCare are mulling their options following a unanimous vote by the Maryland Health Care Commission to allow rival Holy Cross Hospital to build a $202 million, 93-bed acute care hospital on the Germantown campus of Montgomery College.
The decision to appeal the commission’s 9-0 vote on Jan. 20 continues a bitter two-year battle by the two healthcare providers to expand in Montgomery County, a fast-growing, affluent suburb of Washington D.C. that hasn’t seen a new hospital in roughly 30 years. At a time when hospitals around the nation are seeking to shore up their finances by expanding their range of outpatient services, the nation’s capital – with its diplomatic community and a good supply of wealthy residents – offers a lucrative source of healthcare business.
Adventist, which had sought to build a $177 million, 86-bed acute care hospital just a few miles away in Clarksburg, has voiced several objections to the Holy Cross plan – included a bitterly contested charge that Holy Cross’ Catholic mission would prevent the new hospital from allowing such community services as abortions, fertility treatments, tubal litigations and hormonal contraception.
“The availability of reproductive information, counseling, support and services for women in Montgomery County is … a matter of serious concern,” stated a 105-page document of exceptions filed in early January by Adventist officials in the wake of a Dec. 17 report by MHCC Chairman Marilyn Moon in favor of the Holy Cross proposal. “Having identified the importance of this issue and having made a specific finding that there will be no substantive negative impact of approving (Holy Cross Hospital-Germantown), the recommended decision should state the evidence on which this conclusion is based.”
“Our exceptions identify issues and concerns that are vitally important to address before there is any ruling to establish Maryland's first hospital in a metropolitan area in more than 30 years. This decision is too important for the citizens of Montgomery County and Maryland to be rushed through the full commission,” argued William Robertson, Adventist’s president and chief executive.
Catholics for Choice called the Jan. 20 vote “troubling.” In a statement, the group said the vote means women in Montgomery County who go to Catholic hospitals would have no access to abortion, – even in cases of rape or incest – in-vitro fertilization or treatment for ectopic pregnancies.
“This has been a lengthy but thorough process,” Moon told the Washington Post following the vote, adding that women could find reproductive health services elsewhere in the area. “I do not believe I need additional time or additional information. I do not believe additional work needs to be done.”
In a memo summarizing her decision, Moon said the Holy Cross approach would do a better job of improving access to hospital services for county residents and providing adequate bed capacity for the future “that is both reasonable in its cost and located (in) the area of the county that will experience the highest levels of population growth.” She also said Holy Cross's parent organization, Trinity Health, a Catholic hospital system based in Michigan, is financially well positioned to undertake the project.
“We are deeply disappointed in today's ruling, especially for the thousands of upcounty residents and community leaders, many of whom spent almost a decade working with us to expand access to healthcare in the region and create jobs with the Clarksburg Hospital,” Robertson said in a statement following the Jan. 20 vote. He said Adventist would consider its options for appealing the decision, including the possibility of a court challenge.
According to the Post, Beth Corbin, national field director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said her organization was considering possible legal action. The group was among several advocacy groups that filed a lawsuit under similar circumstances in Florida a decade ago over the operation of a public hospital under Catholic religious doctrines. The case was settled out of court; the hospital no longer operates under Catholic directives.
