35 years and counting! Original members of Potomac Hospital’s medical staff and Auxiliary have been helping Potomac care for the community since 1972. Medical staff members (back row, l to r): Ali Moghtader, M.D., Joseph Puglise, M.D., Jahan Joubin, M.D., Nicholas Colletti, M.D. (Not pictured: Carol Shapiro, M.D., John Greenhalgh, M.D., Rodolfo Lopez, M.D., and Richard Lorenz, M.D.) Auxiliary members (front row, l to r): Audrey Greenhouse, Pattie Folks, Nancy Bridges, Sally Baldwin, Martha Felmley, and Frances Tyrrell.
On a crisp fall day in 1972, Potomac Hospital began a tradition of caring that has endured in eastern Prince William County for 35 years. After a community-wide movement to build a local hospital, Potomac Hospital was opened on November 7, 1972, and the rest, as they say, is history…..
The past determines the future
Before Potomac Hospital opened there was no civilian hospital between Fredericksburg and Alexandria. Residents of eastern Prince William County knew that building their own hospital would cut travel time for medical care by 30 to 45 minutes, and in some cases, make the difference between life and death.
“The travel time savings of 30 to 45 minutes in 1972 probably equates to an hour or longer today,” laughs William Moss, president of Potomac Hospital since 1978. “In the seventies Opitz Boulevard didn’t even cross I-95 and ‘the Parkway’ wasn’t in anyone’s vocabulary!”
Perhaps the Woodbridge Jaycees, who hired consultants in 1965 to study the feasibility of building a hospital in the area, can now be called visionaries, since no one imagined the incredible growth that Prince William has seen in the past three decades.
How Potomac was born
The consultants, Louis Block and Associates Inc., determined that eastern Prince William County needed a 100-bed hospital. In 1967 an association of community members and local businessmen was formed to lead the fundraising effort. Local voters passed a $1.25 million bond referendum to pay for the county's share of the start-up costs. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors contributed $660,000 to supplement the bond money.
In the late 1960s architects were hired and at least five sites were surveyed to determine the hospital's location. A 77-acre building site was purchased for $258,070.70 from Mrs. Anna Greisch. Mrs. Johanna Opitz, a long-time area landowner, then dedicated the right of way to the property, which is now Opitz Boulevard.
In the next two years, voters passed two $2.5 million bond referendums. In June 1968, community leaders joined together to form the Potomac Hospital Corporation and elected John Johnson, who was head of Virginia Power, as president. Local businessman Howard Greenhouse was a member of the original group and later became the first chairman of the Potomac Hospital Board of Trustees.
A helping hand by the community
In 1969 the first hospital fundraising membership drive began and soon there were 3,300 members ready and willing to support the hospital's fundraising efforts. After a fourth bond referendum was passed, approximately $1.6 million was still needed for equipment and hospital supplies. The community then stepped up to the plate and contributed the needed money during an extensive effort called the Potomac Hospital Start-Up Fund.
In April of 1971, the Potomac Hospital Auxiliary held its charter meeting. By May, the group had 183 members who pledged $50,000 toward the hospital campaign. On opening day, Auxiliary volunteers manned the information desk and later began assisting with a variety of tasks. They also opened and still operate the hospital gift shop, with proceeds supporting hospital projects.
We’re not done yet
It’s been over a year since the new four-story patient care building opened, but just like the visionaries who helped build the original hospital, Potomac is constantly looking toward the future.
Construction on Potomac Boulevard, a major project to improve the route from the main hospital entrance to the new areas, is underway. Potomac Boulevard will be a wide, spacious corridor that will lead visitors and patients through the hospital with ease. Along the boulevard will be a new, larger gift shop, new worship room, and Jazzman’s Cafe, a coffee and snack bar.
“Not only will Potomac Boulevard allow easier access to our new areas,” explains Moss, “It also provides us the opportunity to update the gift shop, which has outgrown its current location, and to add a small café, which will be convenient for visitors to Labor and Delivery and Post Partum and people here for outpatient services. Evolving, growing and changing to keep up with the needs of the community has always been paramount here. We’ll continue to improve to uphold that tradition of excellence.”
Ben Tamani started working at Potomac Hospital in 1972. He’s the only full time employee that has been with Potomac for its entire 35-year history.
