Aaron “Zack” Royston, MAS, MS, FACHE, has joined UM Shore Regional Health as Vice President of Rural Health Care Transformation and Executive Director of UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown effective August 12, 2024.
To this key leadership role at UM SRH, Royston brings a wealth of health care administration and population health experience, including finance, operations, process improvement, preventive health and strategic planning and implementation. Most recently, he served nearly four years as Director of Clinical Integration in the Population Health Services Organization for University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS). In that capacity, Royston’s many responsibilities included overseeing system-wide population health services clinical integration, data and analytics, and federal regulatory program participation; leading the selection of the the Population Health and Value-Based Care platform; and leading the selection, contracting and implementation of the Epic Integrated Community Resource Directory that enables UMMS team members to support the social drivers of health.
Prior to his tenure at UMMS, Royston spent 10 years in service to Affinity Health Alliance, Inc., based in Elkton, Maryland, including two positions with Union Hospital, which he served as first as Executive Director/Director of Revenue Cycle Operations followed by four years as the hospital’s Senior Vice President of Provider Services.
Royston’s educational credentials include Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Emergency Health Services from University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and also a Master’s degree in Population Health Management from Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. Early in his career, he taught in health sciences programs for area community colleges and UMBC.
In the arena of civic service, Royston previously served as Chair of the Board of West Cecil Health Center, as a board member of the Cecil County YMCA, as a Finance Committee member for the YMCA of the Chesapeake, and as a member of the Cecil County Commission on Aging.