Holy Cross Can Resume Hospital Construction

Holy Cross Hospital can resume construction in Germantown, a move spurred by a Maryland Health Care Commission ruling Thursday.

For the second time, the Commission has granted the hospital a certificate of need to build a 93-bed facility at Montgomery College’s Germantown campus — the county’s first in nearly three decades.

Holy Cross on the hospital in December. But construction was put on pause in February, when a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge overturned the Commission’s ruling, The Washington Post reported.

The case stemmed from an appeal filed by Adventist Health Care, which had submitted competing plans for a hospital Upcounty — Clarksburg Community Hospital — that were . The judge ruled that Adventist should have been given a chance to dispute the Commission’s use of population data that hadn’t been previously part of the record, according to MHCC records.

In a statement provided to The Gazette, Adventist officials said they were “disappointed” by the Commission’s decision to rule in favor of Holy Cross.

The new hospital — to be named Holy Cross Germantown Hospital —  is expected to open in 2014, Holy Cross officials said.