Moore, GOP lawmakers and civil leaders celebrate groundbreaking on new hospital

Gov. Wes Moore (D) and the state’s top Republican leaders put partisanship aside Tuesday to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new medical facility that will better serve the citizens of the Middle Shore, a long-awaited project to replace the aging Shore Medical Center in Easton.

“This shows what is required for progress to happen, and it takes all of us,” Moore said Tuesday at the Talbot County Community Center, which sits adjacent to the construction site of the future hospital. “It takes every sector. It takes the private sector, it takes philanthropy, takes government — both sides of the aisle of government.”

Ahead of the groundbreaking, there was a sense of relief that construction of the new facility was set to begin. The effort to coordinate funding and community approval to build the new facility that will be operated by the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) has been over a decade in the making.

“I can hardly believe that this day has finally come. This is the culmination of so many years of working towards this goal,” said Ken Kozel, president and CEO of the University of Maryland Shore Regional Health. The new facility is scheduled to be open by summer 2028.

The current Shore Medical Center in Easton has been described as “outdated” and “obsolete,” with several portions of the hospital constructed between 1955 and 1975. The current facility is the primary health care provider for Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties, and serves about 170,000 residents spread across those counties.

“There is joy, because we are delivering on a long-held promise and the future is so great for the mid-shore, the medical system and the state of Maryland,” said UMMS President Mohan Suntha.

Sen. Johnny Mautz (R-Middle Shore) said at the ceremony that it was a “tremendous day.”

“This hospital is going to be transformative for the future of our children, for ourselves and for the entire region,” Mautz said. “It’s an incredible effort that we’re undertaking and it’s going to bring more benefits than I think most people can possibly imagine.”

This past summer, a state hospital regulating agency approved rate increases for the hospital to help fund construction of the new site. UMMS officials say the new location, just off of Route 50, will be a more convenient location to access than the current facility, which sits in a residential area.

Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore) said that it took more than 13 years to get shareholders on board, including hospital administrators, local county leaders and state officials,

“An entity can not just build a hospital wherever they choose,” Hershey said. “We had to bring together a vast number of shareholders and sell them on what would become a very unique hub-and-spoke approach to deliver health care to a multi-county region.”

He said that he valued the bipartisan collaboration with the Moore administration to support and fund the new facility.

“I remember one of my first formal meetings with the governor … he asked me, ‘What’s important to you?’ That’s a pretty dangerous question coming from the leader of the opposite political party,” Hershey said.

“I thought if I really tell him, he could use that against me to kind of make sure that I stay in line with maybe some of his, uh… questionable policies,” he said. The audience chuckled at the light-hearted jab at Moore, who also laughed.

“But I trusted him, and I told him that we need a new hospital on the Eastern Shore.… So I guess he does listen to me sometimes,” Hershey said. “We’re thankful that you’ve made this one of your priorities — providing us not just $100 million, but also the support of your administration.

Maryland’s rural communities, including counties on the Middle Shore, tend to struggle with various health needs as well as transportation challenges. Moore and the state’s Republican leaders believe that the new hospital location will help provide greater health care access to residents in that area.

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R-1st), Maryland’s lone Republican in Congress, said he “rearranged his schedule” so that he could attend the groundbreaking ceremony.

“Medical care has advanced greatly since that facility was built and it needs a new building in order to deliver the first-rate care that my constituents and the citizens of Middle Shore deserve,” Harris said.

Moore later said that it’s “too long that we’ve had people on the Eastern Shore who have been left behind.”

“And we have made it a core priority to make sure that the Eastern Shore is seen, that the Eastern Shore can thrive,” Moore told reporters. “We needed to make sure that we had a hospital that could actually see people and care for people. And so it’s been a long time coming.”

By Danielle J. Brown