The Meoli Companies/McDonald’s® and local owner/operator Mike Meoli recently pledged $100,000 to UM Memorial Hospital Foundation to provide assistance to cancer patients receiving treatment at the Clark Comprehensive Breast Center at UM Shore Regional Health. Providing support to patients during their cancer journey is personal for Mr. Meoli as his wife of 24 years, Kelli, is a 15-year breast cancer survivor and registered nurse.

“We are very fortunate to operate restaurants in communities all across the Eastern Shore, and part of that means recognizing ways we can make the biggest impact in every one of them,” Mike Meoli said. “When we discovered the opportunity to fund a second 3-D tomosynthesis mammography machine for the Clark Comprehensive Breast Center, it was a no brainer for us. The dedicated medical staff, exceptional facilities and the level of care patients receive at the Breast Center is unmatched. We are proud to support a health care system that gives back to so many during their most difficult times.”

Photo: L-R: Ken Kozel, president & CEO, UM SRH; Brittany Krautheim, CRNP, breast care nurse practitioner; Mike Meoli, owner/operator, The Meoli Companies/McDonald’s®; Roberta Lilly, MD, medical director, Clark Comprehensive Breast Center; Graham Lee, vice president, Philanthropy, UM SRH; and Brian Leutner, vice president, Clinical and Ambulatory Services.

“I want to thank Mike Meoli, the Meoli companies and McDonald’s Restaurants for stepping forward and making an important difference in breast care through this very generous pledge,” commented Graham Lee, vice president, Philanthropy, for UM Shore Regional Health. “Their support goes a long way toward our goal of acquiring the additional equipment the Clark Comprehensive Breast Center needs to provide our patients the most timely and state-of-the-art testing and evaluation.”

Mike Meoli is a second-generation McDonald’s owner/operator who has spent much of his career within the McDonald’s system. The Meoli Companies own 18 McDonald’s restaurants across Delmarva, including those in the Maryland counties of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties.  His restaurants are consistently recognized for their outstanding achievements in customer satisfaction, superb operations, and great staff development. In 2012, Mr. Meoli was honored with McDonald’s Corporations most prestigious owner/operator award, the Golden Arch® Award, which recognizes the achievements of the top one percent of owner/operators worldwide.

Meoli is very active in his community, serving on the board of directors for the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce and Beebe Medical Center. He is a past president of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce as well as a former Chairman of the Board for the Sussex Family YMCA.  He also serves as vice president of The Dresher Foundation, a Maryland-based charitable foundation established by his grandfather in 1988. Within his business field, Mr. Meoli has served his fellow McDonald’s owner/operators in numerous local, regional and national positions.

As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,500 employees, medical staff, board members, and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.

UM Community Medical Group – Palliative Care recently welcomed Victoria Kuntz to its provider team. As a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Kuntz brings nursing experience in primary care, inpatient palliative care, medical/surgical care, intensive care and oncology to UM Shore Regional Health’s palliative care team. Most recently, she served five years on the inpatient oncology unit at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. Md. Kuntz earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from Walden University.

“Vicki’s experience in oncology nursing and practitioner training in adult gerontology are valuable additions to the depth of our specialized Palliative Care program,” says Lakshmi Vaidyanathan, MD, medical director, Palliative Care. “In addition to our hospital-based palliative care services, our outpatient program is growing as we serve more patients and families in the community. Patients who seek outpatient palliative care support in managing chronic disease symptoms to maintain their best health may contact us at 410-820-4434 to get additional information or make an appointment.”

As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,500 employees, medical staff, board members, and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.

Penny Olivi has joined UM Shore Regional Health as director, Diagnostic Imaging. Olivi brings 17 years’ experience as senior administrator and senior director at the University of Maryland Medical Center and School of Medicine in Baltimore. Previously, she served as director of Imaging for York Hospital in York, Pennsylvania and as practice manager for a free standing CT scanning center in Timonium, Maryland.

A certified radiographer, radiology administrator and a Fellow of the Association of Medical Imaging Management, Olivi earned her undergraduate degree from Towson University and her MBA from York College of Pennsylvania. She has served as a board member and president of AHRA: The Association for Medical Imaging Management, the national organization representing management at all levels of hospital imaging departments, freestanding imaging centers and group practices. She has received numerous awards and honors for excellence in radiology administration,including the AHRA Gold Award.

As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,500 employees, medical staff, board members, and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.

Twelve UM Shore Regional Health team members graduated from University of Maryland Medical System’s Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) on December 20, 2018. ELP is a seven-month leadership development program designed to introduce potential leaders to the changing landscape of health care and the role of effective leadership.

Completing the program as the first UM SRH cohort, the ELP graduates received certificates from Ken Kozel, president and CEO, UM SRH, and Kate McCann, senior vice president and chief human resources officer, University of Maryland Medical System.

“The ELP was extremely valuable to me at this time in my career,” said Karen Hemingway, clinical nurse coordinator, Intensive Care at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown. “The program instructors and senior leaders shared their personal experiences and provided us with tools to help expand our leadership skills. I enjoyed working with my peers from the other Shore Medical campuses as well. We are all so spread out — it was nice to put faces with names.”

Joining Hemingway at the graduation event were, from UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester, Koreen Smith, site coordinator, Laboratory Services, and Melissa Svehla, clinical specialist, Non-Invasive Cardiology. Easton graduates are Catherine Tripp, clinical nurse coordinator, Ambulatory Surgery Center, and five hospital team members:Donna Collins, Telemetry clinical nurse coordinator; Lisa Eisemann, Multi Specialty Care staff nurse; Lyndsey Feather, lead respiratory therapist; Jamie Johnson, Post Anesthesia Care clinical nurse coordinator;and Tara Smith, Multi Specialty Care staff nurse. Also completing the program were Melanie Donaway, administrative supervisor, UM SRH Nursing Administration and Alison Toepfer, staff nurse, UM Shore Emergency Center at Queenstown.

Photo: Shown with Ken Kozel (standing, far left) and Kate McCann (standing, far right) are the Shore Regional Health graduates of the UMMS Emerging Leaders Program. Seated: Lyndsey Feather, Lisa Eisemann, Melanie Donaway, Jamie Johnson, Alison Toepfer and Karen Hemingway. Standing: Melissa Svehla, Donna Collins, Koreen Smith, Tara Smith, Danielle Brummell and Cathy Tripp.

The program focused on six topics: models of leadership and the role leadership in driving organizational, team and employee performance; identifying and building on managerial strengths; effective communication; creating and delivering effective presentations; fostering inclusion and diversity; and strategies for creating and developing high-performing teams. Starting in July, participants met as a group each month for half-day sessions starting in July, and met in pairs between sessions.

During the half-day sessions, topics including health care finance, marketing, quality, safety, compliance and patient experience were illuminated by UM Shore Regional Health executives who made presentations to the group that included scenarios drawn from their own experiences as senior leaders in health care. Presenters were Ken Kozel, president and chief executive officer; William Huffner, MD, senior vice president, Medical Affairs and chief medical officer; Patti Willis, senior vice president, Strategy and Communications; JoAnne Hahey, chief financial officer; and Robert Frank, senior vice president, Operations.

Notes UM SRH Human Resources Director Barbara Hendricks, “One of the values of Emerging Leaders is learning about leadership concepts, and then taking the time to reflect. This helps to build leadership strengths and enhances the overall team member experience.”

As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,500 employees, medical staff, board members, and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.

UM Shore Regional Health’s 2018 Cancer Program Annual Report is now available for online viewing on the Cancer Center’s homepage, https://www.umms.org/shore/health-services/cancer

The report includes an introduction by Christopher Levey, MD, chair of the Cancer Committee, and highlights the following areas of accomplishment in the past year: Accreditations and Recognition, Services, Regional Screenings and Access to Preventive Care, Maintaining Follow-up, Cancer Registry Statistics, Support and Survivorship and Fundraising Highlights, including a list of donors whose gifts were designated to benefit the Clark Comprehensive Breast Center and/or the Cancer Center, July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018. The research study, Breast Cancer Time to Treatment, authored by Roberta Lilly, MD, medical director, Clark Comprehensive Breast Center, also is featured in the report.

Doris Tate, CRNP with Tamra Sanders, a former patient of the Center who shared her story at the event.

UM Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology celebrated its 10th anniversary at an open house event on Friday, November 16 in the Health Education Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton.

The event featured a timeline display highlighting the Center’s growth and development since its founding in 2008 and a brief program featuring remarks by Ken Kozel, president and CEO, Bayan Mesmar, MD, the Center’s medical director; Tamra Sanders, a longtime patient of the Center; and Trish Rosenberry, regional director, Specialty Clinics, Rosenberry offered special recognition for staff members Michelle Gomez and Carolyn Crist, both of whom have been with the Center since its inception.

Those in attendance, including a host of present and former patients of the Center, enjoyed a demonstration and sampling of a diabetes-friendly food preparation demonstration by Michelle Gomez and Karen Hollis, nurse diabetes educator.

Kozel noted that each year, the Center now provides care to more than 5700 patients and offers 48 three-session Diabetes Self Management programs in Chestertown and Easton. In addition, diabetes nurse educators provide one-on-one nutritional counseling and treatment support, lead monthly support groups in Cambridge, Chestertown, Denton and Easton, and participate in various community health events around the five county region.

“The Center’s 10th Anniversary is certainly an occasion to celebrate – and on behalf of Senior Leadership and our Board members, I thank all of you who have helped it grow and develop over the past decade and those more recently arrived who are now part of the team,” Kozel said. “Your expertise and dedication are helping UM Shore Regional Health achieve our Vision to Be the Region’s Leader in Patient Centered Care.”

University of Maryland Shore Regional Health’s continuing commitment to improve the patient experience attains another milestone in December when the entire health care network transitions its medical records system to Portfolio, a state of the art electronic medical health record system.

Set to “go live” on December 2, Portfolio will enhance clinical decision making and collaboration throughout UM Shore Regional Health by providing physicians, nursing and other clinicians with timely, comprehensive medical information that is secure, standardized, and easily shared by colleagues to better coordinate care.  This coordination includes those outside of the UMMS network, integrating information from nearly every touchpoint of a patient’s care.

“Portfolio will improve patient safety and outcomes across Shore Regional Health and everywhere within the University of Maryland Medical System,” says William Huffner, MD, chief medical officer and senior vice president, Medical Affairs. “The new system provides exceptional service to the patients and clinical staff, creating a better experience for everyone.”

According to Dr. Huffner, clinicians and support staff in UM SRH locations throughout the five county region have dedicated months to training and education on the new system and are prepared for the transition. “As with any major information technology change such as this, however, patients and visitors may experience a slight wait as staff familiarize themselves with all aspect of the system.

“Using Portfolio provides a common foundation for patients to access and engage with all clinical programs, providers and services at Shore Regional Health and the University of Maryland Medical System,” says Ruth Ann Jones, chief nursing officer and senior vice president, Nursing and Patient Care Services. “An additional benefit of Portfolio is that it eliminates the need for patients to register multiple times and allows the patient to be the keeper of his or her overall health record from encounters at different entities within UMMS.”

Many people are already familiar with Portfolio, which is in use now at most physician and provider offices affiliated with UM Shore Regional Health as well as other health systems. Portfolio, created by Epic Systems Corporation, is the one of the most widely used electronic medical records systems in the U.S. and around the world.

About UM Shore Regional Health: As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,600 employees, medical staff, board members and volunteers work with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.

Two local community leaders, Robert D. Rauch, P.E., of Easton and Samuel T. Shoge, of Chestertown, have recently been appointed to the Board of Directors of University of Maryland Shore Regional Health.

Talbot County native Robert D. Rauch has spent his career in professional engineering, construction management and commercial real estate. Presently, he is owner and president of A/E Consultant, Robert D. Rauch and Associates, RDR Commercial, LLC, RDR Environmental, LLC and Rauch Investments, LLC.

Rauch’s professional accomplishments and contributions to his community include serving as the first coordinator for Maryland’s Flood Insurance Program and as consultant to the World Bank for Critical Path Scheduling and Project Management Training to International Engineers. He has been honored as recipient of the Sussex, Delaware Conservation District Governor’s Conservation Award, the Talbot County Small Business of the Year Award (2016) and the Talbot County Businessman of the Year Award (2017).

A graduate of University of Maryland, College Park with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, Rauch pursued continuing education in Finite Element Modeling Advance Training at Princeton University.

In addition to his membership on UM Shore Regional Health’s Board of Directors, Rauch serves on the University Systems of Maryland Board of Regents, the University of Maryland Medical Systems Board of Directors, the University of Maryland College of Civil and Environmental Engineering Board of Visitors and the University of Maryland School of Architecture Colvin Institute Board of Advisors. Previously, he served on the boards of the Harry Hughes Center of Agro-Ecology, the Talbot County Historical Society, Friends of Northeast Sports Park, St. Mark’s Methodist Church and the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce.

Robert D. Rauch and Samuel T. Shoge

Samuel T. Shoge, a native and current resident of Kent County, is the economic development coordinator for Talbot County’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism. Previously, he was  admissions counselor and Assistant Director in the Admissions Office at Washington College in Chestertown.

Shoge is a graduate of Elon University in Elon, N.C., where he pursued environmental studies, public administration, political science and geographic information systems.

Shoge is involved in Kent County community affairs, serving as firefighter with the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Company and as an elected member of the Chestertown Town Council, Chestertown Main Street and Arts and Entertainment District Advisory Board, Chestertown Marketing Committee, Kent School Marketing Committee, and Horizons of Kent and Queen Anne’s. He also is a co-founder of the Kent County Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals and has helped lead its growth to include up to 250 members.

Speaking on behalf of the UM SRH Board, John Dillon, chairman, stated,“We are very pleased to have Bob Rauch and Sam Shoge join us in ensuring that University of Maryland Shore Regional Health will successfully navigate the changing landscape of health care. Their strong personal commitment to the communities we serve, as well as their outstanding professional expertise and accomplishments, make them valuable assets to our efforts going forward.”

In addition to Robert A. Chrencik, CEO, University of Maryland Medical System, and Kenneth Kozel, president and CEO, UM Shore Regional Health, current UM SRH Board members are: John W. Ashworth, Charles Capute, Art Cecil, Joseph J. Ciotola, Kathleen Deoudes, John Dillon, Marlene Feldman, Wayne L. Gardner, Sr., Wayne Howard, Richard Loeffler, Charles B. MacLeod, Keith McMahan, David Milligan, Charles B. Noll, Geoffrey F. Oxnam, Robert D. Rauch, Stephen Satchell, Samuel T. Shoge, Thomas Stauch, MD and Glenn L. Wilson.

“Our board members live and work in our communities“, says Kozel.“I believe their diverse knowledge and perspectives position us well to achieve our vision of being the region’s leader in patient centered health care,” says Kozel.

As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,300 employees, medical staff, board members and volunteers work with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.