CAMBRIDGE — This past Tuesday thanks to an invitation from Ken Kozel, President and CEO of Shore Regional Health, I had the opportunity with a group of other people to tour the new Shore Health Emergency Room and Medical Facility that is near completion in Cambridge Marketplace at Route 50 and Woods Road. While the final touches are not yet in place, it is anticipated that there will be a ribbon cutting and grand opening of the facility near the end of this month.

Furniture and medical equipment for both the ER and the Medical Facility are already being installed. Included with this report by a separate email are a few pictures that I took to show what progress is being made.

The facility is beautiful. It has virtually everything that Cambridge and Dorchester County need in the way of medical resources except for major surgery and hospital rooms for care that is needed for longer than 48 hours.

The layouts of the ER that takes up the ground floor and the medical offices on the second floor of this 85,000 square foot building are well planned and constructed. In the ER there are beds for both ER patients and short-term patients that can be interchanged based on the needs of the doctors and community at any given time. There is the capacity for an MRI machine to be brought to the facility based on the number of days it may be needed here or elsewhere that Shore Health has facilities.

There is the ability to address pediatric medical needs for the children both in the ER and in the medical facility. There is a helicopter pad for transportation of critically ill patients either to the ER or from the ER to a hospital that can address those needs. There is also the ability to hold telemedicine consultations with patients or between local physicians and specialists elsewhere that might be required.

While we have had the Dorchester Hospital for many years, the medical needs of the community and the cost of health care have changed the model of how affordable health care can be provided. When the new facility is opened and the old hospital is closed, most inpatient surgeries will be done at the hospital in Easton as will longer hospital stays and most residential mental health treatment. Other needs should be able to be addressed here in Cambridge.

What we will have is a facility that will expand the medical services available here so that more doctors from elsewhere can come here to provide them to the community in a state-of-the-art facility. It should reduce the need for so many patient trips to Easton or elsewhere, as those doctors will be able to have office space here for as many days a week as they might need.

In the coming weeks, other people will have the opportunity to visit what will be an important resource to Cambridge, Dorchester County, and all of its citizens. As the time for opening the facility approaches, I am sure you will hear more from those who will have more details about all of the services that will be available.