Eight Behavioral Health, Five New Examination Rooms Part of Two-Year Project

University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center announced today that it has started long-planned renovations to the Emergency Department at the La Plata hospital, a capital project that will allow for more efficient patient care and enable the hospital to continue to meet the growing medical needs of Charles County. Last year, UM Charles Regional Emergency Department treated more than 42,000 patients.

Through the project, which is expected to take two years to complete, the hospital will add more space dedicated to providing care for behavioral health patients, expand its waiting room, and add five examination rooms, among other improvements.

"We're pleased to break ground on this important project," said Noel Cervino, President and CEO of UM Charles Regional. "As we hopefully begin to emerge from the pandemic, efforts like this project underscore our commitment to learn from the lessons of the past two years and continue to evolve to meet the needs of our patients, our community, and our staff."

Improvements to the Emergency Department will include:

• Eight rooms equipped to help staff better care for the needs of behavioral health patients. UM Charles Regional also recently opened a behavioral health practice as part of the expanding clinical services offered by its UM Charles Regional Medical Group.
• An expanded, more comfortable waiting area for patients.
• A dedicated 12-chair area for patients to wait comfortably pending test results.
• Improved nursing hubs that will allow clinical team members to be closer to their patients' rooms.
• Five additional examination rooms, which will enable the hospital to better accommodate Charles County's ongoing population growth.

"The last two years, and especially the last COVID-19 surge, really demonstrated the importance of our Emergency Department," said Maxwell Ginsburg, MD, Chairman and Medical Director, Department of Emergency Medicine. "The additional examination rooms, along with the behavioral health upgrades, will allow our team of doctors, nurses and technicians to continue to provide excellent emergency care as the county's population grows."

The project continues an expansion of services offered by the hospital and its medical group. In the last two years, this has included launching a new breast health service, the opening of an endoscopy center and hiring additional doctors and nurse practitioners to provide gastroenterology, endocrinology, surgery, women's health, and primary care medical services, in addition to the behavioral health practice. In April, UM Charles Regional will open a new primary care office in the Bryans Road Shopping Center to better serve residents in the western part of the county.

W.M. Davis was awarded the contract for the project; design services are provided by CRGA Design, LDG Inc., WSP USA, and Morabito Consultants.

UM Charles Regional was also recently named a Circle of Honor winner in the Maryland Patient Safety Center's 2022 Minogue Awards for Patient Safety Innovation. The award-winning program is a patient safety performance improvement initiative to promote early out of bed activity in hospitalized patients.