AAMC Opens Housing Facility for Patients, Families

UPDATE (Feb. 1)—Patients and their families now have another option for staying near Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) while they receive care.

The hospital opened a new facility on Monday called the Hackerman-Patz House at 141 Jennifer Rd.—which has 20 guest rooms available for rent.

“Offering families an affordable, convenient place to stay so they can focus on healing and supporting their loved ones is now a reality,” AAMC President Tori Bayless said in a press release. “Families are part of our care teams—this house brings them closer to us. With this house on campus, we will be able to provide some normalcy and comfort for families.”

AAMC broke ground on the 21,000-square-foot building, which sits across the street from the hospital, in April thanks to a $2 million donation by Whiting-Turner CEO Willard Hackerman and his wife, Lillian Patz Hackerman.

AAMC’s Friends of Hackerman-Patz also raised $197,200 to help support the house and its mission.

The purpose of the rooms is to provide an affordable alternative to area hotels for the families of the critically ill, terminally ill, those visiting babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, cancer patients receiving multiple treatments and families of patients requiring a lengthy recovery.

Patients with early morning surgeries can also book a room at the Hackerman-Patz House to avoid a pre-dawn commute.

Tricia Alvarez Ruschaupt, a spokeswoman for AAMC, said the hospital doesn't have a set price for the rooms yet, but she expects that to be finalized by the time the facility starts welcoming guests next week.

She said the price will be below the rates offered by most, if not all, hotels in the area.

"That's the point," Alvarez Ruschaupt said. "Not necessarily to compete with the hotels, but to offer another option."

The 20 guest rooms are designed to function as a "home away from home" with wireless internet, cable television, laundry facilities, kitchens and a community playroom for children.

“With this addition to our campus, we will be better poised to provide care beyond the walls of the hospital,” Bayless said in the release.

AAMC's Hackerman-Patz House is the fifth of its kind in Maryland.

Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, St. Joseph's Medical Center in Towson and John Hopkins in Baltimore all have Hackerman-Patz homes on their properties. There is also a house at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania.

CORRECTION: This article was updated to correct the amount of the donation. Patch regrets the error.