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Adventist HealthCare is moving forward with its plans for a 100-bed hospital and medical campus in Clarksburg and expects to file for state regulatory approval next year.

Officials are looking to form partnerships with health care providers as Adventist develops the 60-acre campus, according to William G. Robertson, president and CEO of Adventist HealthCare.

The medical campus, located in the Cabin Branch development, would also include a skilled nursing and rehabilitation center, medical office buildings, a daycare and room for expansion, Robertson said. Adventist officials have been planning the project for six years, and it predates Holy Cross' proposal for a hospital on Montgomery College's Germantown campus, which was announced in August.

The hospital would serve the growing Clarksburg and Urbana communities and upper Montgomery County.

"It's important to Clarksburg," said Kathie Hulley, president of the Clarksburg Civic Association. "…I don't know what would happen to Clarksburg without something being an anchor like that."

Adventist has received preliminary plan approval from the Planning Board and is developing a site plan, Robertson said. Adventist will apply for a Certificate of Need for the hospital from the Maryland Health Care Commission, the body that determines if new medical facilities are needed, sometime in 2009, he said. Holy Cross filed for a Certificate of Need in October.

Infrastructure work, such as water and sewer, has already started, Robertson said. A hospital would be unlikely to affect Adventist's Shady Grove Emergency Center, which opened in Germantown in 2006, he said.

"We think that between Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, the emergency center and the future Clarksburg hospital with an ER, the community will be very well served," he said. If approved, the hospital would likely open in four to five years, according to Thomas Grant, associate vice president of communications for Adventist. The Certificate of Need process can take anywhere from six months to several years, Robertson said.