Holy Cross Breaks Ground on New Hospital

Executives, lawmakers and local leaders broke ground Thursday for Montgomery County’s first new hospital in 35 years.

“In the next twenty years, Montgomery County will add as many seniors as it has added in its entire history,” said Holy Cross Hospital President and CEO Kevin J. Sexton during his keynote address. “These seniors will use six times as much hospital care as non-seniors.”

More than 300 people attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Holy Cross Hospital facility, which will be located on Montgomery College's Germantown campus and is slated to open in 2014. 

According to a press release summarizing the event:

Guests included Maryland Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller and other representatives of state and local government, 

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett talked about the number of jobs that the new hospital will bring to the county and cited his recent Executive Order designating the new hospital as the first Strategic Economic Development Project in the County.

Other speakers included DeRionne P. Pollard, Ph.D., president, Montgomery College, John F. McShea, III, chair of the Holy Cross Hospital Board of Trustees, and Paul T. Kaplun, chair of the Holy Cross Foundation Board of Trustees.

Sister Jeanette Fettig, CSC, vice chair of the Holy Cross Hospital Board of Trustees, represented the Sisters of the Holy Cross on the dais. The Sisters of the Holy Cross founded the hospital in 1963.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, gave the invocation.

The Maryland Department of Economic Development put the $202 million Germantown hospital at the top of its list of state projects for the first half of 2011, potentially bringing 1,100 construction jobs to Montgomery County, the press release said.