CRISFIELD, MD - Community members gathered in the Crisfield High School auditorium on Wednesday evening for a special meeting of the Mayor and City Council with TidalHealth representatives regarding a proposed new medical facility.
TidalHealth President and CEO Steven Leonard told attendees that an urgent care project has been in the works since 2019 but was delayed by the 2020 global pandemic.
“We were excited to get here number one and engage the community, so we had always intended upon doing this,” Leonard said.
The proposed urgent care would be located on Main and Fourth Street, built on elevated ground to protect the facility and parking from flooding.
The site would be equipped for lab testing, telehealth services, rehabilitation, and more.
About three-fourths of the 2-hour meeting on Wednesday consisted of question, answer and discussion among attendees, Leonard, and TidalHealth employees.
Three primary concerns emerged: impact on Lower Somerset EMS, the proposed location, and the elimination of the emergency department at McCready Pavilion.
Lower Somerset EMS Station 8 President George Nelson expressed concern that closing the local ER could increase his crew’s roughly 2-hour transports to Salisbury, and could necessitate a second paid crew.
"We're afraid that it's going to leave our community uncovered,” Nelson told WBOC. "We'll do whatever the community decides to do and make the best of it. We're just going to need help -- funding help for this extra crew that's going to be needed."
The proposed Main Street location is another common area of concern.
"There's so much water that gathers … it doesn't make sense to put it there,” community member and business owner Tim Howlett said. "You can build it as high as you want, but we've got to be able to get to it."
Leonard told attendees that the urgent care plan was designed before cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency canceled the $36-million Crisfield flood mitigation project. However, city officials are attempting to implement the plan in piecemeal phases.
“The loss of that $36 million makes people a little more nervous than they were about investing in our community, but the reality of it is the city is continuing to move towards addressing the flooding issue,” Mayor Taylor said.
The final common concern shared during Wednesday evening’s meeting is the loss of the McCready Emergency Room and the building's uncertain future.
Built in 1923, the McCready structure is a part of Crisfield’s heritage many neighbors said they would like to see preserved.
Leonard said the ER in Crisfield only treats six high-acuity patient visits per year, making an urgent care model more appropriate for the community.
“The ER now sees 10 to 12 patients a day, a typical ER sees 75 to 100,” Leonard said. “It's well below anything that a normal ER would see.”
For context, the ER at TidalHealth Peninsula Regional in Salisbury sees approximately 250 patients per day, according to Leonard.
The urgent care facility is designed to operate as an Emergency Department if the need in the area increases.
"We actually designed it in a more robust way should something change in the future it would have to be a pretty dramatic change,” Leonard said. “I think that's something we've been pretty transparent about.”
Several attendees requested that the new facility include a CT Scan. The McCready Pavilion currently provides this service locally. While the original urgent care plan did not include a CT Scan, Leonard said that it is to be determined after hearing the concerns echoed by so many community members.
Mayor Taylor said that while the city council supports keeping an ER in Crisfield, she sees TidalHealth’s commitment to reinvesting in the community as an important step toward revitalizing the area.
TidalHealth anticipates that the project's development phase will take approximately 24 months. Leonard told attendees that no existing services at the McCready Pavilion will stop before the new facility is up and running.
