It’s difficult to believe that here we are again – on the cusp of a brand new year. As we take time to enjoy the holiday season with our family members, friends and loved ones and as we approach 2017, it brings me great pride and a feeling of tremendous gratitude to reflect upon the steadfast commitment and support of our team members, medical staff, Board members, volunteers and the local communities and our local communities of which we are privileged to be a part.
University of Maryland Shore Regional Health accomplished much in 2016. This past year, we continued to live our vision, to be the region’s leader in patient centered health care. Our team does that by striving each day to achieve our organization’s goals of Putting our Patients First – creating exceptional quality, safety and patient experience; Innovation and Clinical Integration – leading the way in innovative and integrated care delivery; Access to Care – enhancing access to clinical services throughout the region; Team Strength – supporting the efforts of highly engaged team members and physician partners; and Financial Resources – achieving consistently strong financial performance in support of the mission.
In 2016, our entire team worked diligently and successfully by offering high quality, innovative health care to the residents of our five-county region.
Last January, our Shore Medical Group – the multispecialty physician group of University of Maryland Shore Regional Health – became a part of something greater as it joined a network of University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS)-affiliated physicians and advance practice providers located throughout the state. To reflect its proud relationship with UMMS, UM Shore Medical Group became a part of University of Maryland Community Medical Group (UM CMG). With our UM CMG partners, we focused our attention on enhancing access to our quality services and adding new primary care and specialty providers throughout our region. Shore Regional Health’s partnership with UMMS and UM CMG truly enables us to offer our patients highly accessible, leading-edge health care services, close to home.
This year, we celebrated the opening of a number of new outpatient facilities including the second phase of UM Shore Medical Pavilion at Easton and UM Shore Medical Pavilion at Chestertown, both of which provide our local communities with greater access to care by offering a number of medical specialties in convenient, centralized locations. At both of these locations, and all of our inpatient and outpatient facilities throughout the region, we have worked to create greater efficiencies to ensure the patients we serve are offered leading-edge, patient-centered health care.
This past summer, we celebrated the completed renovation at the Diagnostic and Imaging Center, which now also provides expanded space for the Clark Comprehensive Breast Center. As part of the renovation, the DIC upgraded its diagnostic technologies including digital mammography with tomosynthesis. With this addition, UM Shore Regional Health now offers state-of-the-art mammography at two locations across the region, in Easton and at the Eleanor and Ethel Leh Women’s Center in Chestertown.
The Birthing Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton celebrated its 20th Anniversary this year and a tremendous milestone – delivering 20,000 babies since its opening in a new unit in 1996. The Birthing Center team offers outstanding service to our communities and does excellent work in offering support to women during such profoundly important occasions in their lives, and in caring for the newborns they help bring into the world.
In 2016, UM Shore Regional Health entered into a partnership with ChoiceOne Urgent Care to open new urgent care centers in Denton and Easton. Both centers treat patients—from pediatrics to geriatrics—who need immediate medical care, but their illness and injury might not warrant a visit to the emergency room. By establishing partnerships with ChoiceOne and numerous other community organizations and health care providers, Shore Regional Health is living our Mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.
As we turn our focus to 2017, UM Shore Regional Health will be providing our entire team with the tools and training needed to ensure we are creating memorable moments and meaningful care relationships with each patient and family member encounter. Through improved access to our services and our goal to provide patient-centered care with each encounter, we are taking the necessary steps to realize our vision of being the regions leader in patient centered healthcare.
Over the next several months, we will be kicking off some exciting new projects and services throughout our region. We are thrilled to announce the advancement of cardiology services including electrophysiology (EP) of the heart and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) – two medical procedures that are vital, and in some instances, life-saving, for those patients experiencing acute cardiac events. Our partners at UM CMG – Cardiology and our Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Services team members have worked very hard to make these services available here at Shore Regional Health and are extremely passionate about the positive impact this will have in our communities.
For our friends and neighbors in Caroline County, there are some exciting things happening in Denton. In February, UM Shore Regional Health plans to break ground on its newest Medical Pavilion – UM Shore Medical Pavilion at Denton – which upon its completion in 18 months will provide the patients we care for in that community with convenient access to primary care and a number of medical specialties and services.
Thank you for your commitment to Shore Regional Health, the high quality care and compassion you provide to the patients we serve and the valuable health care services you enable us to offer the region. It takes all of us to make our organization the region’s leader in patient-centered health care and the work you do to help us realize our goals is greatly appreciated. I wish you and your loved ones a joyous holiday season and a new year that brings an abundance of health, happiness and success to all. I am very much looking forward to continuing our success in 2017.
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