Kaiser Permanente, the health care provider and insurer, is poised to open a $247 million medical center in Timonium in two years.
The group secured about five acres of land last year on Greenspring Drive, adjacent to the Timonium Fairgrounds Light Rail station, with plans to build a five-story medical center. The facility is expected to begin accepting patients in 2021.
The 221,795-square-foot center will house a broad range of health services and operate as a one-stop-shop for patients. In addition to primary care, 24-7 urgent care and pharmacy operations, the center will offer medical and surgical specialty care, including optometry, audiology, pain management and other specialists. The hub also will offer advanced imaging and a lab.
“It really offers a wide array of functionality for patients in a single location,” said Dr. Richard McCarthy, associate executive director for Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic.
The facility will become Kaiser Permanente’s fourth “hub” in Maryland, in addition to medical centers in Halethorpe, Gaithersburg and Largo. Kaiser Permanente has a total of 20 medical facilities across Maryland, including medical offices in a building on York Road in Towson.
The center is expected to employ 350 people, including 88 physicians across a range a specialties, McCarthy said.
As of February, Kaiser Permanente had 432,547 members in Maryland, according to a spokesman for the group.
McCarthy said Kaiser Permanente has learned from its other medical hubs and will refine its operations and the design of its Timonium center to improve on its operations.
For instance, Kaiser Permanente has found that many women experienced heightened anxiety when waiting for mammogram test results. So when patients come to the Timonium center for mammograms, they will be able to have the test and receive the results in real time, McCarthy said.
And appendicitis patients, who sometimes have to wait for operations until the middle of the night, will be able to be diagnosed, have their appendices removed and return home within 24 hours.
Kaiser Permanente also allows members to engage in video consultations with physicians, and the organization will incorporate its latest “telemedicine” technology in the new hub.
“We’re really excited,” McCarthy said. “Kaiser Permanente is making a huge investment in the Mid-Atlantic and this is one example of that investment.”
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. welcomed Kaiser Permanente’s plans in a statement and cited the economic boost offered by its South Baltimore County Medical Center, which opened in Halethorpe in 2013.
“This location will provide a great resource to the community as well as job opportunities to the residents of Baltimore County,” Olszewski said.
Baltimore County owns the land where the center is slated to be built.
The center is expected to eat into parking at the Light Rail station. It’s unclear exactly how many spaces will be lost as a result of the project.
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