ELLICOTT CITY, MD - Howard County Executive Calvin Ball today cut the ribbon on the highly anticipated Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center’s (JHHCMC) Observation Unit. View photos of the event on the Howard County Government's Flickr page.
Hospitals around our country are experiencing longer wait times in their Emergency Departments, and Howard County’s one and only hospital is no exception. The opening of this Observation Unit will deliver much needed relief to patients and staff in our Emergency Department. Thank you to Dr. Shafeeq Ahmed and all of our local partners who have made this expansion possible. This transformative enhancement will optimize care and efficiency, ensuring all our residents have access to quality healthcare.
The hospital pavilion’s first floor has been transformed into the Observation Unit- a 29-bed space that will expedite patient care and enable patients to move from the emergency room to other hospital units more efficiently. The unit, which is expected to open for patients in early December, represents the first significant bed expansion at the hospital since 2009. The total investment for the Observation Unit is $28 million, of which the County contributed $15 million over the last three years from County Executive Ball’s budget proposals, which were supported by the County Council.
Given the unlikely prospect that an additional hospital provider could obtain a new Certificate of Need (CON) to open a second hospital in Howard County, it became imperative that Howard County government partner with JHHCMC to ensure high quality care and timely access to services. As such, the Observation Unit is the latest investment the County has made to expand hospital capacity. In 2024, the hospital opened the Behavioral Health Unit (BHU). The $10.3 million project expanded the BHU from 1,500 sq ft to 7,000 sq ft, tripling its capacity from five to 24 beds. This strategic investment is aimed at reducing wait times in the Emergency Room for patients experiencing behavioral crises. Since opening in 2024, patients’ length of stay has reduced by approximately two hours.
The BHU offers a specialized environment, including open treatment spaces, semi-private rooms and rooms for therapy. The number of behavioral health emergency visits have surged in recent years. In 2021, 18.3% of hospital visits were due to a mental health crisis, compared to only 10.5% in 2013.
Since taking office in December 2018, Ball has committed approximately $30 million to JHHCMC to expand space and services to the County’s only hospital, including:
- $200,000 per year in funding for the JHHCMC Behavioral Health Navigators. Patients who interact with this program demonstrate lower levels of utilization.
- $100,000 per year to support multi-visit patients. These are patients who have visited an emergency department more than three times. Since this investment, the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission has reported that JHHCMC has the second-lowest multi-visit rate in the state at 17% of all patients. The statewide average is 27%, and, while broad, this metric suggests that the range of “high utilizer” services at JHHCMC is effective in reducing re-utilization of the emergency department.
- $300,000 for the Mobile Integrated Community Health (MICH). During the three years of this program’s tenure, JHHCMC and the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services treated more than 800 patients and saw an 85% reduction in 911 calls, 83% decrease in inpatient admissions, and 75% reduction in emergency department visits.
- $3.2 million for Maternal Health. JHHCMC used the funding to establish a maternal health clinic. It is estimated that more than 200 people avoided the emergency department as a direct result of the Clinic since opening in 2023.
- $250,000 for a Partnership with the Maryland Hospital Association (MHA). Howard County Government and JHHCMC partnered with MHA to create a discharge hospitality suite. The goal was to help alleviate throughput pressures in JHHCMC’s inpatient bed and emergency department utilization. Opened in July 2024, this suite has served nearly 3,600 patients, reducing time spent in an inpatient bed by nearly 1,015 hours—more than 17 minutes per patient.
- $3 million to support Sheppard Pratt’s Baltimore Washington Campus in Elkridge, which includes a psychiatric walk-in urgent care, and a 16-bed residential crisis facility. Both of these additions provide JHHCMC with additional options to send patients in need of urgent and short-term mental health care.
Howard County launched the SmartER Optimization Initiatives, a systemwide navigation tool of alternative healthcare options (e.g., urgent cares) that patients can access across multiple languages.