Center Fact Sheet

What type of facility is the Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center at Germantown?

The Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center functions similar to the Hospital's main Emergency Department, but it does not have inpatient beds. The Center provides the same emergency medical care that patients can receive at a hospital emergency department. Advanced technology allows the Emergency Center to be closely linked with Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. For example, the hospital’s new Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS), which provides digital x-ray images, allows doctors at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital to review images from patients at the Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center. For patients who come to the Emergency Center, but require inpatient hospital care, state and county officials have worked closely with Shady Grove Adventist Hospital to establish transport protocols for the Center.

Freestanding emergency medical facilities are typically developed to improve access to emergency medical care for residents in a given area. The Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center significantly improves access to emergency medical care for residents of upper Montgomery County, Maryland.

The emergency center was just the first part of what has become a network of comprehensive health care services for Germantown and the upper part of Montgomery County:

• Shady Grove Adventist Radiation Oncology Center at Germantown
• MobileMed Upcounty Primary Care Clinic
• Maternity Partnership Prenatal Center
• Medical Office Building

Why is there a need for a freestanding emergency medical facility in Germantown?

The area that Shady Grove Adventist Hospital serves includes residents in central and northern Montgomery County. In 2005, before the emergency center opened, Shady Grove Adventist Hospital’s Emergency Department treated nearly 90,000 emergency patients. In fact, Shady Grove’s Emergency Department is consistently one of the busiest in the state and operates at a volume more than double the national standard for hospitals of its size. The community served by Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in upper Montgomery County faces a unique combination of factors that impede access to emergency medical care: skyrocketing population growth, severe traffic congestion, and a large geographic service area among other issues. Since the Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center opened in August of 2006, it has provided emergency medical care to an average of 36,000 patients a year. The freestanding facility has also reduced out-of-service ambulance times in upper Montgomery County by 40 percent, according to the county’s Fire and Rescue Service.

Adventist HealthCare has contracts in place with Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service to pay for ambulance transports between the Germantown emergency center and local hospitals. The agreement reimburses the county’s Fire and Rescue Service and provides funding that allows the county to invest in its EMS fleet. 

How do Maryland laws support freestanding emergency medical facilities?

In 2006, the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates passed legislation that effectively enabled Shady Grove Adventist Hospital to establish a freestanding emergency medical facility in Germantown. Process and protocols regulate freestanding medical facilities, like as the Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center, that are administratively linked to a hospital.

A new 2010 law directs the state to set reimbursement rates for freestanding emergency facilities in Maryland, including the Shady Grove Adventist Germantown Emergency Center, to help cover important staffing and equipment costs. The new law brings freestanding emergency medical centers under the authority of the Health Services Cost Review Commission, making them available for Medicare and Medicaid fee-for-services reimbursement.

The law, passed by the Maryland General Assembly, requires freestanding emergency centers to be “rate-regulated” by the state, which sets how Medicare and other insurers reimburse for a specific treatment for hospital-based services. In addition, the legislation places a freeze on any new freestanding medical facilities until 2015, when a Certificate of Need (CON) process will be used for consideration of new facilities of this kind.

Where is the Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center in Germantown located?

The 17,000-square-foot facility, with 21 emergency treatment beds, is located on a four-acre site next to a physician office building on Route 118, just west of I-270. The four-acre site is located across from the Germantown Town Center.

Who staffs the Emergency Center?

The Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center in Germantown is staffed by a team of board certified emergency physicians as well as about 30 specially trained nurses and staff.

When did the emergency facility open to patients?

The Shady Grove Adventist Emergency Center opened August 7, 2006.

How will reimbursements issues be handled?

The emergency medical facility accepts all patients for care, regardless of ability to pay. Officials from Shady Grove Adventist Hospital have negotiated contracts with private and public insurers.

Updated July 2011