In the aftermath of what must be considered one of Chestertown’s largest community forums in its 300 year old plus history, where dozens of citizens spoke out of possible or rumored reductions for inpatient care at the UM Shore Health Center at Chestertown, the central question remaining on Sunday afternoon was one focused on solutions to keep the Kent County-based hospital a viable health care institution.
The answer to that question came from Dr. Wayne Benjamin at the end of the meeting Sunday. Benjamin, the highly regarded local physician and current head of medical services for Shore Medical Center at Chestertown, represented his colleagues and other concerned citizens in presenting a “must have” list to keep the Chestertown facility a functioning hospital.
Here in its entirety in Dr. Benjamin’s presentation.
This video is approximately ten minutes in length
Margery Elsberg says
Thank you, Dr. Benjamin!
I’ve been a board member of the Chester River Health Foundation, the fundraising arm of our hospital, for about six years, including two as board chair, and I’ve been working with the doctors who organized the “Save the Chestertown Hospital” group, too. I’m helping them for the same reasons I devote time, treasure and passion to the Foundation: I believe that our community needs the best hospital possible, I believe that our local doctors are truly dedicated to our health and welfare, and I believe that the University of Maryland system and Shore Regional Health can make this hospital great again.
But UMMS and Shore Regional Health need and deserve our help–now and in the future. Once Shore Health’s CEO Ken Kozel starts to restore and upgrade an appropriate range of medical services here, and once the Shore Regional Health board votes to maintain inpatient services forever (well, for a generation or two or three), more people in this community need to start trusting and using the hospital’s services again. And we all need to dig into our pockets–as we have since 1935–to contribute needed funds so the hospital will always be an up-to-date, state-of-the-art facility. UMMS has poured many millions of dollars into our hospital since 2008 (which is why the hospital’s in excellent condition) but UMMS won’t–and shouldn’t–do it alone. The community donated more than $1.8 million and convinced state officials to grant $900,000 more so we could fully equip the new Emergency Department and build a two-bed trauma bay. (Stop by and take a tour some day.) Even as we plead with Ken Kozel and John Dillon to “save our hospital,” Shore Health is getting ready to upgrade the second floor critical care unit here, which will be funded to the tune of nearly $200,000 by donations from the community. An additional $50,000 will come from Shore Regional Health. These are improvement that, we fervently hope, will continue to be used even after Shore Health builds a new hospital in Easton.
So keep your letters coming–to our legislators in Annapolis and to Ken Kozel and John Dillon in Easton. They are the decision-makers who can make sure our hospital gets–and stays–healthy. Click on the SAVE THE HOSPITAL ad in The Spy (to the right) and you’ll get all the information you need to write your letters.
Wishing you good health, always,
Margie Elsberg
Patsy Hornaday says
Thank you, Dr. Benjamin, and Dave Wheelan for urging citizen support and action in maintaining Chester River Hospital
here in Chestertown. It has been a person life extender and saver for me and my husband as typical retirees. My husband
Ted and I could not make the Sunday meeting as Friday, Jan. 8 as we were in Union Hospital, Elkton, Maryland where Dr. Cumiskey performed
hip replacement surgery for Ted. I had Emergency Room treatment last October and can vouch for the excellent staff and facility
we are so fortunate to have at CRHC with periodic blood tests as well. We flew our daughter here from Kansas to assist in our long
drive back and forth seeing us through a healing return home to Chestertown. Yes, this is where the “rubber met the road” in
testimony to Dr. Benjamin’s urgent appeal for maintaining services and staffing at CRHC.