Part of the GBMC Extended Family - Chesapeake Urology's Long History of Providing Care to Patients at GBMC HealthCare

For more than 50 years, GBMC has worked to establish close working relationships and partnerships with independent physicians and practices throughout the community, providing the healthcare system with the ability to deliver comprehensive services to meet the needs of its patient population.

Melissa Sparrow, MD, GBMC’s Chief of the Medical Staff, fully recognizes the importance of having strong partnerships with independent physicians throughout the community, stating, “Alongside the system’s growing, high-quality employed physician model, we recognize and value our independent and non-employed physicians and the contributions they make to patient care every day. They are part of our extended family.”

One of the largest physician groups that have become intertwined in the fabric of healthcare delivery at GBMC includes Chesapeake Urology, the largest urology group in the Mid-Atlantic region. More than one dozen of Chesapeake Urology’s 80-plus urologists provide care for patients at GBMC, not to mention its physician assistants, nurses, and support staff.

A New Home for Chesapeake Urology at GBMC

Chesapeake Urology will soon have a newly expanded and redesigned home on the GBMC campus in Physicians Pavilion North. Currently under construction, Chesapeake Urology’s new space will include physician offices on the entire fifth floor of the building while the state-of-the-art Summit Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) will take over the sixth floor.

The new office space and Summit Ambulatory Surgical Center will consolidate Chesapeake Urology’s physicians and staff from several office locations including GBMC, the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center campus, Ruxton Professional Center, and the Good Samaritan campus. Chesapeake Urology’s new space will also include The Vasectomy Reversal Center of America, the Chesapeake Aesthetic Surgery Center, and the Chesapeake Urology Infusion Therapy Center.

“The consolidation of the four offices and three ASCs into one larger space on the GBMC campus will allow us opportunities to provide a broader scope of comprehensive care to patients,” explained Brad D. Lerner, MD, FACS, CASC, President of Chesapeake Urology Associates. “This move will not only allow us to enhance all of our existing clinical care programs but will also allow us to offer additional programs and processes that will be beneficial to all. The presence of specialists, generalists, research personnel, and ancillary services under one roof, along with ready access to additional supportive clinical services at GBMC, will improve the delivery of care to patients.”

Leading the Way in Urologic Oncology and Clinical Research

Over the years, Chesapeake Urology specialists have established close working relationships with GBMC’s medical oncology group which provides advanced cancer therapies for patients with prostate, kidney, bladder and other urologic cancers. In addition, many of GBMC’s radiation oncologists deliver radiation therapy for prostate cancer patients at Chesapeake Urology’s Prostate Center for Radiation Therapy. And, for patients being treated with new therapies for advanced prostate cancer, the Chesapeake Urology Infusion Therapy Center is housed on the GBMC campus.

Clinical research in urology and urologic oncology is another significant area where GBMC and Chesapeake Urology have been leading the way, together. Ronald Tutrone, Jr., MD, FACS, CPI, GBMC’s Chief, Department of Urology, a urologist with Chesapeake Urology, and Medical Director of Chesapeake Urology Research Associates, has been a principal proponent for clinical research at the hospital. In fact, he was the first physician to establish an endowed chair at GBMC specifically for urologic and cancer research thanks to a generous gift from a grateful patient. “The partnership between GBMC and Chesapeake Urology as well as the practice’s new, state-of-the-art office space will bring more clinical investigators under one roof, making it more efficient to enroll patients in new clinical trials,” Dr. Tutrone states.

“By consolidating Chesapeake Urology’s offices and physicians into one center, we’re expanding upon our collaborative urologic oncology program and creating even closer working relationships between Chesapeake Urology physicians and GBMC’s oncology specialists,” Dr. Tutrone adds. “This strong partnership will greatly enhance GBMC’s existing clinical research program for urology and urologic oncology, and that’s a win-win for all patients.”