Pennsylvania’s WellSpan Health will open a new “small-format” hospital off Interstate 83 just past the Maryland state line later this month, offering a new source for 24/7 emergency care for residents in northern Harford, Carroll and Baltimore counties.
WellSpan’s new Shrewsbury Hospital is one of three small-format hospitals the health care provider is opening this year in the greater York and Harrisburg areas.
“Families no longer have to travel long distances or navigate busy highways to get emergency care. More access to efficient emergency medicine is now right where it belongs and conveniently located along the busy and growing I-83 corridor,” said Dr. Nicholas Bertoni, the hospital’s medical director, in a statement.
First responders in Carroll and Harford counties are calling it a welcome addition to help relieve transport times for emergency medical calls.
When the Shrewsbury Hospital opens, it “will provide a closer medical facility to our calls within Lineboro and Manchester’s outlying areas,” said Carroll County Department of Fire and EMS Director Michael Robinson. “These units frequently provide mutual aid into [Pennsylvania,] so their closest facility may become WellSpan Shrewsbury Hospital.”
A medic crew from Harford County’s Norrisville took part in the Shrewsbury ribbon-cutting Wednesday. Norrisville Volunteer Fire Company said on Facebook that the hospital “promises to revolutionize local healthcare.”
“With transport times of under 20 minutes for most of [the fire company’s] primary response area, this hospital will offer our community unparalleled convenience in medical care,” the fire company wrote.
At 18,000 square feet, the Shrewsbury Hospital seems to sit somewhere between a typical urgent-care clinic and a larger hospital campus. It offers an emergency department and will be open around the clock. It will have 10 inpatient beds and offer diagnostic tests like ultrasounds, X-rays and laboratory services.
But it will be just a small fraction of the size of, for example, the UM Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Aberdeen, which is about 130,000 square feet. The WellSpan Shrewsbury footprint is about half the size of Sinai Hospital in Baltimore’s new emergency department alone.
Similar to the 2-year-old Aberdeen hospital, WellSpan Shrewsbury will not feature surgery or more complex health care. “Patients with complex, acute care needs and patients who need surgery will be assessed and transferred to another WellSpan hospital to receive a higher level of care,” the hospital system said.
The “small-format” or “micro-hospital” trend seems to be picking up steam. The Wilmington-based ChristianaCare, which took over Elkton’s Union Hospital in Cecil County, opened one micro-hospital last year and plans to open another this year.
Carroll medic units currently take patients to four Pennsylvania hospitals, in addition to Carroll Hospital Center, Robinson said. The choice of hospital is based on the patient’s location and, sometimes, the patient’s choice.
Patients can also be taken to Pennsylvania “when [Carroll Hospital Center] has a long wait time and is on a ‘reroute’ status where ambulances bypass that hospital due to patient overload.”
Andrew Doyle, spokesperson for Harford County’s Volunteer Fire and EMS Association, said via email: “The addition of a hospital adjacent to our northern service area provides several options for both our EMS crews and patients. … We will be able to balance system impacts and transport times in the interests of our patients and EMS service. We welcome the opportunity to partner with WellSpan on this achievement.”
The Baltimore County Fire Department said its EMS bureau plans to tour the new hospital March 20.
“We look forward to transporting low acuity patients [who need less complex or urgent care] as necessary,” the department said in an email Friday.
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