Western Maryland Regional Medical Center (WMRMC) is a hospital located in Cumberland, Maryland in Allegany County. The facility, which opened on November 21, 2009, is owned by the Western Maryland Health System (WMHS). It was established as a combination of Memorial Hospital (Cumberland) and Sacred Heart Hospital (Cumberland), both of which are now closed. It is sometimes confused with Western Maryland Hospital Center, a state-run rehabalitation hospital located in Hagerstown, Maryland.
History
Established as the Western Maryland Hospital in 1888, Memorial Hospital moved to its current location on Memorial Avenue in Cumberland, Maryland in 1929 and was renamed in honor of those who gave their life in World War I. Memorial Hospital was once owned and operated by the City of Cumberland and became a private non-profit organization in the early 1980s. Afterwards, Memorial was owned by the Cumberland Memorial Hospital Corporation.
Sacred Heart Hospital was first incorporated as Allegany Hospital in 1905 and moved from its original site on Decatur Street to the Seton Drive facility in 1967. The Daughters of Charity were asked to come to Cumberland to operate the hospital in 1911. Between 1935 and 2006, the hospital was known as Sacred Heart Hospital. The hospital was briefly known as WMHS Braddock Campus before the opening of the Western Maryland Regional Medical Center in 2009.
In an effort to effectively manage local healthcare resources, Cumberland Memorial Hospital Corporation and Sacred Heart Hospital joined together in April 1996 to form the Western Maryland Health System (WMHS). Working together, the two hospitals were able to expand the range of healthcare services available to local residents and successfully meet the challenges associated with an ever-changing healthcare industry.
In 2005, the Western Maryland Health System made the decision to build a new hospital in Cumberland that would replace both Memorial and Sacred Heart hospitals. As their original facilities were less than two blocks apart in the early 20th Century, both hospitals in a sense would come full circle by becoming a single hospital. In 2015 WMHS was recognized by Healthgrades as one of America’s 50 Best™ hospitals for Cardiac Surgery.
Construction of the new hospital
On October 25, 2006, the Western Maryland Health System broke ground on the construction of a new hospital. The location on Willowbrook Road was chosen due to its proximity to the Allegany County Health Department, Allegany College, which has a nursing program, and the Thomas B. Finan Center, the local inpatient psychiatric hospital.
The project involved the reuse of several large buildings, including one previously used as the corporate headquarters of The Kelly Springfield Tire Company as well as another that was formerly a call center used by M&T Bank. Because the site of the Allegany County Health Department was both an aging facility as well as the optimal location for a hospital, the Allegany Health Department was relocated to the first floor of the former Kelly building as well as the building formerly used as a tire testing facility. The Allegany Health Department was then demolished to make way for the new hospital.
On November 21, 2009, the Western Maryland Regional Medical Center opened on Willowbrook Road in Cumberland, effectively consolidating the Western Maryland Health System within the city into one centralized facility. By 3:30 PM that same day, all patients from both Memorial Hospital and Sacred Heart Hospital (WMHS Braddock Campus) had been moved to the new hospital and the two facilities were closed.
Western Maryland Health System
The Western Maryland Health System's headquarters is located next to the Western Maryland Regional Medical Center. Other facilities operated by the health system include Frostburg Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, an 88-bed nursing home providing long term care located in Frostburg, MD. The Health System also provides urgent care services in Frostburg, MD at its Frostburg Medical Center as well as in nearby Mineral County, WV at its Hunt Club Medical Center. The Western Maryland Health System also operates four primary care centers for patients 18 years of age and older.
References
External links
- Western Maryland Health System
