The long-awaited new hospital in Prince George’s County has seen a surge of emergency department patients since it opened last month — a wave that officials say highlights a need for medical care that has long existed in the Maryland suburb.
When University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center opened its doors June 12, leaders said their goal was to lure back some of the estimated 50 percent of residents who had been leaving the county for care. The demand, so far, has more than exceeded expectations, officials said, with about 30 percent more patients seeking care at the Largo hospital’s emergency room compared with the now-shuttered Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly.
But that increase has come with challenges, said the new hospital’s chief executive, Nathaniel Richardson Jr. — including long wait times in the emergency room that have led to frustration among patients. The surge is not at this point driven by covid-19 cases, he said, but instead by people who delayed regular medical care during the pandemic and by an increase in trauma cases, including injuries from car accidents now that restrictions have lifted and more cars are on the road.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Rachel Chason over at The Washington Post
