Suburban Hospital
Rodney Vieira has never forgotten the treatment he received at Suburban Hospital’s Emergency/Trauma Center when he arrived on Nov. 7, 2009, with symptoms of a heart attack. After being evaluated in the ER, he spent five days in the hospital, undergoing an angioplasty (to open a blocked artery to the heart) and insertion of a stent.
“The doctors and nurses…treated me like a person, not like just another number at the hospital,” says Vieira, a 45-year-old father of two in Chevy Chase. Afterward, he underwent cardiac rehabilitation as an outpatient. “I could exercise under a watchful eye without worrying about something happening to me,” he says, “and it gave me a network of other people I could talk to.”
Little wonder Bethesda Magazine readers named Suburban the best hospital in two categories this year: “Best Emergency Room” and “Best Heart/Stroke Care.” (The hospital also made “Best of Bethesda” lists in four previous years.)
The community-based hospital, which became part of Johns Hopkins in 2009, has been serving the area since 1943. With its new state-of-the-art NIH Heart Center, its designations as the first certified stroke center in the region and as the trauma center for Montgomery County, Suburban has become the go-to place for a variety of medical emergencies for adults and children. As Vieira notes, “It’s a great asset in the area.”
Photo courtesy of Suburban Hospital
8600 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, 301-896-3100, www.suburbanhospital.org
