In an effort to cut health care costs and remain competitive, Howard County's only hospital has found a location for an outpatient rehabilitation center that it plans to open with the University of Maryland Medical System.
Moving the rehabilitation services from Howard County General Hospital to a new site in east Columbia's Owen Brown village will enable the private hospital to charge lower rates than the state-mandated rates charged at the hospital.
"It will save the consumer and insurers money," said Victor A. Broccolino, president of Howard County General. Costs for services "will be totally market driven."
Plans for the Central Maryland Rehabilitation Center -- which will include a pediatric unit -- have been in the works for seven years, but the hospital only recently signed an agreement with the university to run it jointly.
When it opens early next year, the center in the new Hillcroft Professional Center in Owen Brown will offer occupational, physical and speech therapy for adults and children from Howard, Baltimore, Prince George's and Montgomery counties.
All of Howard County General's rehabilitation services will be moved to the new center, which is expected to cost about $1 million before it even opens its doors.
The center is the second joint venture between Howard County General and the University of Maryland. Last fall, the two hospitals opened a regional oncology center at Howard County General.
The community hospital also joined a nine-hospital regional alliance in June that will allow it to share such services as pediatric and neonatal care, cardiac care and cancer surgery.
Community hospitals throughout Maryland have found it necessary to establish partnerships and mergers to compete with less-expensive hospitals and outpatient service facilities. Insurance companies have been directing patients to less-expensive providers to reduce health care costs.
That has hurt community hospitals such as the 233-bed Howard hospital, where the occupancy rate fell from 81 percent in 1990 to 57 percent during the first three quarters of the fiscal year that ended June 30. As a result, the hospital is turning to more outpatient services to avoid profit losses.
"This is clearly economically driven," said Dr. Craig B. Grether, who owns and operates the competing 7-year-old Horizon Health and Rehabilitation Inc. in Ellicott City. "Since they're losing business, they're branching out. I don't blame them for that at all."
