As a Chestertown native, I have a long relationship with our local hospital – to begin with, I was born there. And, since my return to my home town some 25 years ago, I have more than once been a patient there – as has my wife. So its place in our community is very much a personal concern – as it should be for anyone who lives here.

The need for a local hospital was first recognized in the late 1920s, when Nora Maxwell, President of the Kent County Health Association, began a fund-raising campaign to create a hospital in the local community. At first the association rented four rooms in a High Street building, but a permanent building was a part of the plans from the beginning. In 1930, the association acquired property adjacent to Washington College, although the Great Depression delayed the beginning of construction to 1933. Originally called the Kent and Upper Queen’s General Hospital, the brick building opened in 1935, with 25 beds and three private rooms. The first child born there was Harry Williams Johnston – in February of that year.

In 1942, the facility became Kent and Queen Anne’s Hospital, the name by which it was known for most of its existence. It has undergone numerous expansions and renovations, beginning as early as 1941, and the original building is now all but buried under the various additions. At its peak, it had as many as 86 patient beds, though that number has gradually gone down with the move to same-day surgeries and the treatment of many conditions on an outpatient basis. And, since the facility merged with the University of Maryland Medical System in August, 2008, it is more and more common for patients to be transferred to other facilities for treatment.

The merger was controversial at the time – former Councilman Marty Stetson said in a 2007 Chestertown council meeting that he had “a hard time finding anyone on the street” who supported it. And former Mayor Margo Bailey asked what guarantees there were that the hospital would remain open after the merger. Hospital board members answered that the contract for the merger stipulated that Chester River Hospital “will remain an acute care inpatient facility.”And they pointed to the expected benefits, including access to capital, better ability to recruit top physicians, and upgrades in IT and financial support.

What happened after that has been, if anything, even more controversial. We’ll take a closer look at that in a forthcoming article.