By KATHLEEN NELSON
Holy Cross Hospital officially opened its $190 million expansion Nov. 1, when staff moved about 150 patients into private rooms in the new wing of the facility in Silver Spring, Md.
The new seven-story South Building adds 232,000 square feet of space. It houses critical care, intermediate care and medical-surgery units. Though the addition did not increase the hospital’s total of 443 beds, every room is private.
“It’s a better healing environment,” said Kevin Sexton, president and chief executive of Holy Cross Health. “It’s much safer from an infection control standpoint. The comfort is significant. There are no fights over the TV. And, it allows our nurses to do their jobs more efficiently.”
Kevin J. Sexton
The project also included renovations to 42,000 square feet of the critical care and surgery areas in the main building of the hospital, as well as 300 new parking spaces.
The building was designed to follow the curve of the Capital Beltway, Interstate 495, which circles the Washington, D.C., area and passes within yards of the hospital. The exterior features colored glass panels, reminiscent of the stained glass in the original hospital chapel. Sexton said similar glass was included in a hospital renovation completed in 2005.
“So, it’s become a theme,” he said. “Even though patients and families are undergoing stress, we’re trying to make this a comforting place to be.”
The new building was designed to meet the latest standards for sustainability, and the designers have applied for Leadership in Energy and Environment Design gold certification.
The expanded campus has been renamed the Kevin J. Sexton Campus of Holy Cross Health.
“It’s really recognition not for what I’ve done but for the work everybody’s done at the hospital and more importantly, the legacy of the sisters,” Sexton said in reference to the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who founded the hospital in 1963. Holy Cross Health is part of Trinity Health, based in Livonia, Mich.
The opening of the South Building completed a $450 million expansion plan begun in 2008. Other elements of the expansion include:
• Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, which opened in October 2014 as the first hospital in the U.S. situated on the campus of a community college. Like the hospital in Silver Spring, all 93 beds at the Germantown, Md., facility are in private rooms.
• A Holy Cross Health Partners primary care center in Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg, Md., which opened in February 2015 and is located inside a senior care center.
• Three additional Holy Cross Health Centers, the newest of which opened in May 2015 in Germantown. The others built in the expansion are in Silver Spring and Aspen Hill, Md. The original health center is in Gaithersburg. All serve a population that is disproportionately low-income.
• Partial ownership of Maryland Physicians Care, the fourth largest Medicaid-managed care organization in Maryland.
“We assessed the environment from the standpoint of our mission, which is to look out for people who get left out,” Sexton said, noting growth in the number of seniors and immigrants and population increase across the board in Montgomery County, especially around Germantown. “We were improving access for people of need.”
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