Company Description:

Adventist HealthCare system began with the founding of Washington Adventist Hospital by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1907. Originally called the Washington Sanitarium, it was established as a health facility that treated illness and disease as well as taught patients the benefits of exercise, a balanced diet, rest and fresh air.

After World War I, “the San,” began its transition from a long-term to acute-care facility. It changed its name to the Washington Sanitarium and Hospital and added an acute-care hospital building for surgical, obstetric and emergency cases. Next to the Sanitarium, the Adventist Church built a college later called Columbia Union College and now, Washington Adventist University. The first group of nurses graduated from the hospital in 1909; nurses later received their training at the college.

In December 1979, Adventist HealthCare’s Shady Grove Adventist Hospital opened as the first hospital in northern Montgomery County.

In 1997, Adventist HealthCare acquired Hackettstown Community Hospital, a community hospital serving northern New Jersey now known as Hackettstown Regional Medical Center.

In 2000, Adventist HealthCare acquired Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health, a freestanding psychiatric hospital, which offers an array of inpatient, outpatient and partial hospital services for adolescents and adults, now part of Adventist Behavioral Health. Adventist Behavioral Health includes the Reginald S. Lourie Center for Infants and Young Children, which was founded in 1983.

In 2001, Adventist HealthCare partnered with Kessler Rehabilitation Corporation to open the Kessler-Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital, a freestanding inpatient rehabilitation hospital now known as the Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland. The hospital is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) International for care of hospitalized patients in four specialty areas — brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, and amputation.

The hospital is currently the only facility in the nation with the TreadSense device, which helps patients recovering from stroke, Parkinson’s disease and other disorders impacting balance to regain mobility. The TreadSense device, created by kinesiology researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, provides feedback to people with poor balance so that they may improve their control and prevent future falls.

Experts from this hospital have traveled to Haiti help care for patients who had suffered traumatic injuries from the January 2010 earthquake, such as the loss of a limb and brain and spinal cord injuries.

Adventist HealthCare is awaiting approval to relocate Washington Adventist Hospital to the White Oak/Calverton area in the East County area of Montgomery County, a plan that has garnered strong community support. The move will enable a partnership between Washington Adventist Hospital and the Food and Drug Administration to collaborate on medical and scientific issues

Community involvement and charity care

Adventist HealthCare is a faith-based organization that provides care to the community at large as well as to high-risk populations such as the uninsured and underserved. Adventist HealthCare consistently provides high levels of charity and uncompensated care. In addition to supporting programs for the underserved, Adventist HealthCare provides one of the highest percentages of community benefit out of all Montgomery County hospitals.
Adventist HealthCare Center for Health Equity and Wellness

The Adventist HealthCare Center for Health Equity and Wellness is a recognized expert in addressing health disparities.

Marcos Pesquera, executive director for the Center for Health Equity and Wellness, serves on the Maryland Health Quality and Cost Council and co-chaired by Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown on the health disparities workgroup.

An extension of Adventist HealthCare, the Center for Health Equity and Wellness was created in 2006 to raise community awareness about local health disparities, improve capacity to deliver population-based care, and develop solutions to eliminate local disparities in health care. To achieve these goals, the center focuses on education, services, and research. With their education initiative the center provides online and in-person training to health care professionals and staff. Through these classes they seek to increase cultural understanding and improve cross-cultural communication skills.

The center also provides services to the Montgomery County community. These include interpretation and translation for patients, as well as health and wellness programs such as health education classes, screening events, support groups and special events. Through a partnership with Mobile Medical Care, the center helps to improve access to primary and preventative care to patients around the county regardless of ability to pay.

The Center on Health Disparities conducts and supports research into the causes of and solutions to health disparities providing an annual report in conjunction with a health disparities conference and working with partners in research throughout the year.

Additional programs

Adventist HealthCare’s ACES (Ambulatory Care Electronic Health Records Solutions) program offers affiliated outpatient assistance in implementing EHRs in their practices. Physicians and hospitals who implement an electronic health care record (EHR) and demonstrate effective use of the system are eligible for federal incentive payments under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). ACES allows physicians to have a secure, electronic platform for patients to receive more coordinated medical care.

In November 2011, Adventist HealthCare and the GW Medical Faculty Associates (MFA, the largest independent physician group in metropolitan Washington) announced a venture to create a network of physicians in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. The collaboration between Adventist Medical Group (AMG), Adventist HealthCare’s employed physician practices, and MFA will enable Adventist HealthCare to rapidly and effectively grow the number of its employed physicians toward its mission of improving the health of the community it serves.
Leadership

Terry Forde, the president and chief executive officer of Adventist HealthCare, has held those positions since April 2014. He was previously the organization’s chief operating officer and executive vice president.

Additional Adventist HealthCare executives include, James G. Lee, executive vice president and chief financial officer, who is director of the HealthCare Financial Management Association (HFMA) board; Patrick Garrett, M.D., senior vice president of Physician Integration/Innovation and president of Adventist Medical Group; Susan L. Glover, senior vice president, chief quality and integrity officer, who is a board member for the Maryland Patient Safety Center and Maryland Healthcare Education Institute Board of Trustees; and Marta Brito Pèrez, vice president of human resources and chief human resources officer.