By Dan Hounsell

New healthcare facilities are vastly complex projects to develop, design and construct, and the challenges are even more daunting for facilities that require public funding.

Top Maryland leaders cut the ribbon recently on the state-of-the-art University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center in Largo, the first new hospital in the state in 30 years, according to The Baltimore Sun. The $543 million hospital has been more than a decade in planning and replaces the old Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, a facility with such financial and image troubles that local leaders said two-thirds of area residents went elsewhere for care.

The 11-story, 205-room hospital officially opens June 12. It’s built on a 26-acre site and will offer a 41-bay emergency department with a trauma care, 32 intensive care beds, two endoscopy suites, two catheterization labs, eight operating rooms and a 15-bed pediatric unit.