UM Shore Regional Health at Cambridge in 2021

Introducing UM Shore Regional Health at Cambridge

University of Maryland Shore Regional Health's plans for the delivery of state-of-the-art health care services in Dorchester County are now being realized with the construction of the new UM Shore Regional Health at Cambridge. The new facility is scheduled for completion in 2021.

The new health care campus will include an 82,000 square-foot, two story building, of which the freestanding medical facility (FMF) will occupy the entire first floor. The FMF will include a 17-bed emergency department, six private observation beds and a separate, three-bed unit for the assessment and treatment of patients needing behavioral health emergency care, intensive outpatient behavioral health services, infusion and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation.

The second floor will serve as a medical pavilion offering a wide array of services, including an outpatient surgery center, diagnostic imaging and laboratory services, rehabilitation services (including the Balance Center), chronic disease management services and a community education room. The Cambridge offices of UM Shore Medical Group pediatric, women’s health and surgery practices also will be located on the second floor, along with a multispecialty suite where patients can see providers from various specialties including diabetes, cardiology, primary care and urology. An adjacent MRI facility will provide outpatient and emergency department imaging access.

This plan for conversion of the existing Dorchester hospital to an FMF includes the consolidation of inpatient beds to the existing UM Shore Medical Center at Easton at the time that the FMF opens. The current hospital property is then proposed to be part of the redevelopment of Cambridge's waterfront, through the efforts of Cambridge Waterfront Development, Inc., a city-county partnership.

This exciting milestone has been in the planning stages since 2016 and final plans for the new facility were approved by the Maryland Health Care Commission in April 2019. According to Ken Kozel, president and CEO of UM Shore Regional Health, the development of plans for UM Shore Regional Health at Cambridge was a collaborative effort involving the UM Shore Regional Health Board, Dorchester medical staff and community physicians, local and state legislators, Dorchester County and Cambridge city officials, Emergency Medical Services representatives, and civic and community leaders.

"We are looking forward to continued progress in the advancement of health care in Dorchester County and throughout the five-county region we serve," Kozel said.