The building at the intersection of Route 301 and St. Patrick’s Drive in Waldorf is often overlooked by passersby. A wall of trees along southbound 301 limits the view of the structure from the tens of thousands of cars that go by every day, and the tan adobe exterior and simple lines blend into the landscape. So, a lot of people don’t even notice it’s there —we should say, was there.
Demolition of this building at 10 St. Patrick’s Drive was started today, Tuesday, July 16, 2019, to make room for progress in Charles County. About a year from now a new, 51,000 square foot medical facility will occupy the site, as part of the MedStar Shah Medical Group. Dr. Vinod Shah explained the project at our Quarterly Business Roundtable in April, and we wrote about it in a followup blog. Here are the details from that piece.
MedStar Shah Medical Group is modeled after the concept of a distributed care delivery network, taking healthcare services from big cities like Washington DC to smaller communities like Charles County.
With this model, a group of doctors works as a team in one center that takes care of people from birth to an advanced age for all disciplines: medical, surgical, oncology, outpatient surgery, etc. All this is done in a coordinated fashion from primary care to local hospitals to tertiary care (care provided by specialists in a large hospital). This concept was first developed in St. Mary’s County, which became a model for MedStar Shah Medical Group, was duplicated in Calvert County, and will soon be available here in Charles County.
According to Shah, the new center in Charles County will be a 51,000 square foot, three-story facility with the following services:
Floor 1: Walk-in clinic, advanced cancer center, pharmacy, and diagnostic services (i.e. CAT scans and MRIs)
Floor 2: Medical specialties (cardiologists, pulmonologists, cancer specialists, and neurologists)
Floor 3: Surgical specialties
With the use of technology and a connection to larger hospitals, patients needing surgery will be able to have pre-op tests done locally instead of driving to downtown Washington DC or Baltimore. All images taken at the center will be interpreted by top-notch radiologists at MedStar Georgetown. Charles County residents will have access to care available at the best medical centers. And, “It will be in one place, a center of excellence,” said Shah.
Not only will this facility bring new healthcare options for patients, it will also bring upwards of 250 jobs in healthcare, one of the EDD’s target industries. These are the kinds of high-paying jobs that many Charles County commuters do in other jurisdictions. This project will allow more residents to work right here at home.
Blog Post from the Charles County Economic Development Team
