Pennsylvania\u2019s WellSpan Health will open a new \u201csmall-format\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
WellSpan\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies 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,\u201d said Dr. Nicholas Bertoni, the hospital\u2019s medical director, in a statement.<\/p>\n
First responders in Carroll and Harford counties are calling it a welcome addition to help relieve transport times for emergency medical calls.<\/p>\n
When the Shrewsbury Hospital opens, it \u201cwill provide a closer medical facility to our calls within Lineboro and Manchester\u2019s outlying areas,\u201d said Carroll County\u00a0Department of Fire and EMS Director Michael Robinson. \u201cThese units frequently provide mutual aid into [Pennsylvania,] so their closest facility may become WellSpan Shrewsbury Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
A medic crew from Harford County\u2019s Norrisville took part in the Shrewsbury ribbon-cutting Wednesday. Norrisville Volunteer Fire Company said on Facebook that the hospital \u201cpromises to revolutionize local healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith transport times of under 20 minutes for most of [the fire company\u2019s] primary response area, this hospital will offer our community unparalleled convenience in medical care,\u201d the fire company wrote.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But it will be just a small fraction of the size of, for example, the UM Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Aberdeen<\/a>, which is about 130,000 square feet. The WellSpan Shrewsbury footprint is about half the size of Sinai Hospital in Baltimore\u2019s new emergency department<\/a> alone.<\/p>\n Similar to the 2-year-old Aberdeen hospital, WellSpan Shrewsbury will not feature surgery or more complex health care. \u201cPatients 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,\u201d the hospital system said.<\/p>\n The \u201csmall-format\u201d or \u201cmicro-hospital\u201d trend seems to be picking up steam. The Wilmington-based ChristianaCare, which took over Elkton\u2019s Union Hospital in Cecil County, opened one micro-hospital last year and plans to open another this year.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s location and, sometimes, the patient\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n Patients can also be taken to Pennsylvania \u201cwhen [Carroll Hospital Center] has a long wait time and is on a \u2018reroute\u2019 status where ambulances bypass that hospital due to patient overload.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew Doyle, spokesperson for Harford County\u2019s Volunteer Fire and EMS Association, said via email: \u201cThe addition of a hospital adjacent to our northern service area provides several options for both our EMS crews and patients. \u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The Baltimore County Fire Department said its EMS bureau plans to tour the new hospital March 20.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look forward to transporting low acuity patients [who need less complex or urgent care] as necessary,\u201d the department said in an email Friday.<\/p>\n Have a news tip? Contact Bryna Zumer at bzumer@baltsun.com, or on X as @brynazumer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania\u2019s WellSpan Health will open a new \u201csmall-format\u201d hospital off Interstate 83 just past the Maryland state line…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":656505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[60798,278182,3534,7286,278181,210,1141,1142,6478,278180,2830,29890,278179,67,132,56854,68,278178],"class_list":["post-656504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-carroll","tag-christiana","tag-emergency","tag-ems","tag-harford","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-micro-hospital","tag-pennsylvania","tag-shrewsbury","tag-small-format","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-urgent-care","tag-us","tag-wellspan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116231020666277095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}