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Health Health Homepage Health Health Portal Lead

End of Life Conversations by Dot Mayorga

December 21, 2020 by Dot Mayorga Leave a Comment

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There is a notion that “end of life” means imminent death. But for most of us, death does not happen abruptly. Whether related to age or disease, a person’s ability to maintain activities of daily living usually declines over time. This could happen over years, months, or weeks. Each time period requires adaptation of the new normal.

If a person hasn’t taken time to think about and discuss these changes, the reaction is often to deny the change and fight to regain the old normal. This sets them up for pain and suffering because they can’t go back to their previous state indefinitely. There are resources available to help make these adjustments easier. 

Doctors & Clergy Members

When planning to discuss health and major life decisions, many people reach out to their healthcare provider or religious/spiritual advisor. But these professionals may be ill-equipped to counsel on end of life. Healthcare providers work in a system devised to keep people healthy, to maintain optimal functioning. Although advances have been made, there is still a level of discomfort surrounding the discussion of death. Many providers don’t know how to guide patients through end of life.

Religious and spiritual advisors help direct people to live a good life, teaching them how to assure a place in heaven or receive some other reward. Sadly, for some, their education didn’t include training about how to help people find peace and satisfaction at the end of their life.

How much is too much?

With a lack of resources for a meaningful dialogue about an end of life plan, another issue arises: over-treatment.

Over-treatment in the United States has become the standard of care. In her book, Finish Strong, author Barbara Coombs Lee, healthcare clinician, policy maker, advocate and president of Compassion and Choices outlines six reasons for over-treatment.

  1. Financial gain. The main reason for over-treatment in the US is the current fee-for-service model. Providers are paid to perform tests, procedures and surgeries, not to cure disease or maintain health. It is not a matter of greed or conspiracy on the part of the provider. It is the inevitable result of this type of system.
  2. Providers are reluctant to deliver bad news. Providers may feel a personal sense of failure when explaining that treatments aren’t working. This often prompts them to suggest other treatments. These treatments often lead to a decrease in the person’s quality of life or may inadvertently shorten their life because of side effects. When more technology is introduced into patient care, hands-on medicine decreases. The farther away a provider gets from the patient, the less comfortable they are looking the person in the eye to tell them that their life is ending. Studies reveal that healthcare providers experience feelings of profound grief, sadness, self doubt, failure and powerlessness when treatments fail and death is inevitable.

  3. Patient and family expectations. There is a notion that we can abuse our bodies for a lifetime with poor diet, dangerous behaviors, addictions, lack of exercise, and expect — almost demand — that our doctor fix us with a magic pill or a silver-lining procedure or surgery. These do not exist but that doesn’t stop patients and families from imploring providers to “do everything you can,” “try something else,” or “spare no expense.”

Providers are not magicians and they certainly are not God. There is a limit to what the body can tolerate. We all come with an expiration date. The sad part about “doing everything” is that the majority of the time, the intervention causes pain and suffering. It robs the patient of enjoyment and quality time to say important things while loving those around them. In trying to save them, the precious time they have left is stolen.

  1. Technology. In our country, many people think that just because technology is available, it must be used. When a patient hears that there is another machine available to perform a different test or procedure, they want to use it. That is not an inherently bad thing. The problem arises when no one questions why it’s being used, what the potential outcome is going to be, and if it may lead to further tests and procedures. Every case is different but this should be discussed at a level that the patient and family can understand.

  2. Fear of lawsuits. A national physicians survey conducted in 2010 by Jackson Healthcare found that 73% of doctors say they order more tests, procedures, and treatments than are medically necessary in an effort to prevent lawsuits. Providers would rather do more than be accused of not doing enough. They don’t want to risk a lawsuit and an accusation of malpractice. According to a 2014 Gallup poll of healthcare executives, the financial impact of defensive medicine is about $650 – $850B a year.

  3. Palliative care/hospice care equals giving up. Our current system requires a patient to stop curative treatment in order to receive hospice care. The main focus in both palliative and hospice care is comfort. Palliative care (treatments aimed at providing comfort and quality of life) can co-exist with curative care but Medicare does not pay for it, at least not yet. Hospice care requires an end to most curative treatments with a few exceptions and Medicare pays for it. 

Studies prove the benefit of a dual approach to patient care. In a 2010 study, 151 cancer patients were randomly assigned to standard treatments alone or standard treatments with early access to comfort care. The group that was given both standard and palliative care as their disease progressed was less likely to choose aggressive treatment such as 3rd and 4th rounds of chemotherapy or admission to the ICU. They actually lived an average of three months longer than the standard group and they reported better quality of life.

Start the conversation with these documents.

There are resources available to help you have important conversations and create legal documents detailing your end of life wishes. You can find these documents online or obtain them from your local hospital or hospice provider.

Five Wishes. This is a legal document that helps people consider and document how they want to be cared for at the end of life. It states what life-sustaining treatment the person desires as well as what they don’t want. It names the person who will make decisions when they are no longer able. It also documents how and where they die. For example, they may wish to die at home with their favorite music playing and a special aromatherapy scent in the air. The document lists who you want to be present at the time of death. People may write their own obituary and dictate what their funeral or body disposition plans are. This form needs to be signed by two witnesses who are over 18 years old and will not benefit from the person’s death. 

MOLST: The Maryland Order of Life-Sustaining Treatment. This is a legal document and a physician’s order signed by a medical provider. Most people discuss this with their primary care provider and have them sign it, but it can be signed by any licensed provider. It details what life-sustaining treatment and procedures you want and those you don’t. It identifies your decision maker when you are no longer capable of making the decisions. This document is different because it is a signed order and it only addresses medical issues.

Keep the completed document in a safe place in your home. Some people keep it in the freezer in a Ziploc bag so that if you need transport by EMT to hospital, the document is there and first responders can be made aware of your wishes. Without a MOLST, by law, healthcare providers must do everything possible to keep you alive even if that isn’t what you want. 

Advanced Directive. This legal document states your end of life medical wishes and names your decision maker. There is a section for funeral and after-death body disposition plans. This document needs to be signed by two witnesses over 18 who will not benefit from your death.

Legal Documents Protect You

All of these resources are legal documents. Only the MOLST is a signed order by a medical provider and must be followed. It is the only document that EMT responders will adhere to because in most emergencies there is no time to debate the meaning of a statement. 

Make multiple copies and give them to your medical provider, your family members, your decision maker (healthcare proxy), hospital, nursing home, and back-up decision maker.

Update the documents periodically to reflect your current condition and your feelings about the types of intervention you desire. It’s important to remember that these documents ONLY come in to play when you are no longer capable of speaking for yourself. You can change your mind and submit a new document at any time. Make sure to give healthcare providers the updated version.

To learn more about end of life planning, check out The Conversation Project, Compassion and Choices and Respecting Choices. To talk with an experienced hospice nurse, contact me at Connecting the Dots in Healthcare at 443-786-0873 or email dorothyamayorga@gmail.com.

Dot Mayorga has been a nurse over 20 years serving the residents in Caroline, Dorchester, Talbot and Queen Aanes counties. She has worked as a medical- surgical nurse in Easton Memorial Hospital, a case manager Home Health, Hospice nurse with Shore Health, and Wound Care nurse with Shore Regional Health System. She currently is a triage nurse with Choptank Community Health Services.

 

Filed Under: Health Homepage, Health Portal Lead

Melissa’s Story –A Message Of Hope In The Face Of Depression And Suicide

December 18, 2020 by For All Seasons, Inc. Leave a Comment

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Melissa decided that it is time to share her story. She hopes by opening up and by paying it forward she will help others to understand that no matter the challenges you face in your life, you can make it through. Reflecting on her past, she recognizes that difficult times can happen to anyone and that the stigma tied to homelessness, depression, and addiction needs to be confronted.

Suffering from depression since her twenties, at 26, Melissa felt unable to cope. She reflects, “Due to family difficulties, I attempted to take my own life.”

Melissa had been working in a doctor’s office and she took a large dose of pills. As she explains, it was more of a cry for help and not knowing where to turn. She was fortunate to make it through this dark period, but other challenges, which she never anticipated, lay ahead.

Years later, Melissa married and she and her husband moved to the Eastern Shore. They were both college-educated and ready to build their life together. They were excited when Melissa became pregnant. Since her husband had a good job as a mechanical engineer, they decided that she would stay home to raise their daughter. Unfortunately, Melissa’s husband needed to have surgery. The medication he was prescribed after the surgery led him to have a pain killer addiction that then led to heroin addiction. Over time, he lost his job, and Melissa, who was working again, had to leave her place of employment because her daughter couldn’t be home alone with her husband. As challenges escalated, Melissa and her daughter became homeless.

“I don’t think that people understand that it can happen to anyone. My husband and I are both college-educated, both from middle-class families, and this is just an insidious problem that I didn’t know about until it got really bad,” she explains.

Thankfully, Melissa had been keeping track of her mental health. When she was pregnant, she was referred to a therapist at For All Seasons and maintained her relationship with her therapist through these extremely difficult years. “Being able to have that safe space to be able to come and talk saved my life . . . At the scariest lowest point of my life, I was able to get through,” she adds.

When Melissa was asked, “What would you want to say to someone who has fallen on hard times?” She did not hesitate to answer, “You have to find something within yourself – even if only small things . . . to take that next step. If you don’t have a therapist, find a therapist. If you don’t have a therapist, find a friend. There is always someone. It is my experience that strangers show the greatest kindness. There is always someone out there. There are organizations out there, there are people out there that will always lend a hand.”

Melissa says that her connection with her therapist was what helped turn her life in a new direction. For her, it was this relationship and the kindness of strangers that not only helped her get through but strengthened her resolve to give back and to go back to school to become a social worker.

When asked what she would say to someone who feels as though life is not worth living and who contemplates ending their life, Melissa shares, “That emptiness that you have – there is someone who can talk to you, who can get you to someone where you do feel comfortable telling them about how you are feeling. You really aren’t alone. It may not be a parent or a friend or someone that you would naturally think would come to your aide – a lot of times they are not equipped.”

“But, there are people on the hotlines and websites. If you can get yourself to reach out just please reach out – there is help. There really is. It will be ok. Where you are now is not where you will always be.”

Melissa is now in her third year of her Masters of Social Work program. Her therapist has noticed how she wants to advocate for other people and has asked Melissa if she might consider working in macro social work policy. When asked what she may want to do in the coming years, she responds, “I am hoping in five years that I will have taken my life lessons and turned that into paying forward everything that was given to me. I volunteer at the shelter where we lived. All I can do is hope to keep paying forward the kindness that was given to me.”

For All Seasons operates as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-sectarian organization established in the Mid-Shore area to assist individuals, groups, and communities by providing trauma-certified Mental Health and Psychiatry Services, Rape Crisis Services including advocacy and crisis hotlines, and education and outreach to the community.

Filed Under: Health Homepage Tagged With: For All Seasons, Health

Compass: COVID, Expansion, and New Name with CEO Heather Guerrieri

December 8, 2020 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

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While the COVID pandemic has dramatically impacted the entire health sector over the last nine months, hospice care has been particularly hard hit as patients, family members, service providers, and staff have had to improvise at the end of life many living on the Eastern Shore.

That is certainly the case for Compass Regional Hospice, which serves Caroline, Kent, and Queen Anne’s Counties in supporting those seeking a dignified closing to their lives but also provides invaluable services for those with chronic illnesses as well as grief counseling for loved ones at all ages.

In our Spy interview with Heather Guerrieri, the long-tenured CEO of Compass, she talks about how she and her staff are coping with the coronavirus impact and some of the silver linings that come with this kind of challenge. She also talks about the current residential program in Chestertown and the soon to be completed new facility in Caroline County.

Heather also talks about the significant name change that her organization has recently instituted after a long internal process. This month Compass Regional Hospice will change their name to simply Compass.

The name change is more than just a matter of simplifying things. As the organization has continued to expand its services, it has been increasingly important for the general public to know that this means so much more than traditional hospice support. By leaving off “hospice” in the title, the hope is that over time, the community will understand the much fuller portfolio of work Compass provides to the Mid-Shore.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about Compass please go here.

Filed Under: Health Homepage, Spy Top Story

The COVID Third Wave: New At-Home Tests Could Help Keep You Safe

November 16, 2020 by Al Hammond Leave a Comment

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The combination of colder weather, more indoor living, and widespread exhaustion with preventive measures such as masks and social distancing is fueling an explosive third wave of the virus. Infections, hospitalizations, and deaths are rising very rapidly across the U.S. So far, however, the Eastern Shore is a pretty safe place to be. Compared to North Dakota’s incidence of 171 cases per 100,000 people (highest in the U.S.), Maryland overall has just 24 cases/100k as of November 14. The Mid-Shore counties were lower still: Queen Anne 16.7; Kent 11; Caroline 10.3; Talbot 8.1 (all per 100k of population).  Because populations are small, these numbers don’t translate into lots of cases: Kent, for example, is seeing about 2 new cases a day.  

Still, things are likely to get considerably worse nationally over the next several months, if medical experts like Dr. Fauci are right. Numbers of new infections are rising even on the Eastern Shore. And vaccines won’t be available for most people until sometime next spring or summer, because health workers and first responders and possibly nursing home residents or other extremely vulnerable people are likely to have first priority. So the pandemic will likely get much worse before it gets better. To complicate matters, it’s also flu season, with overlapping symptoms making it initially hard to know what a fever or congested breathing really mean. As a result, gathering the family for Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays or New Year’s celebrations comes with higher risks—especially if some of those gathering come from places with higher Covid prevalence. 

The good news is that testing is both more available and, soon, more convenient—even something you can do yourself at home, quickly and privately, like a pregnancy test. There are several kinds of tests, which differ in what they measure, accuracy, speed of results, and costs. So let’s sort them out and clarify the technical terms:

  • PCR test, which stands for polymerase chain reaction, is the gold standard for covid testing. It make millions of copies of any virus genetic material found in a test sample (usually collected with a nasal swab), allowing it to be sequenced and identified. The testing process, however, requires sophisticated laboratory equipment and usually takes several days for the sample to be sent to a lab and analyzed. It’s not cheap if you have to pay for it yourself.
  • Antibody tests, which are blood proteins generated by your body’s immune system to defend against a virus infection. However, it usually takes several weeks after infection for detectable levels of covid antibodies to show up in your blood, so while this test can confirm that you were infected, it’s not useful to detect a live infection, especially early on when a person is most likely to spread the disease to another. 
  • Antigen tests, which detect a viral particle or other foreign agent that can stimulate an immune response. These tests are inexpensive, can be analyzed very rapidly, and do not require complex laboratory equipment, but they have lower accuracy than PCR tests. Nonetheless, they are especially useful in the early days of an infection, and for testing people who are infected but have no symptoms. 

Several companies including major laboratory chains like Quest will send you a sample collection kit for a PCR test, which you collect at home and mail to the laboratory for testing; but it takes several days and may not be covered by insurance. Public health agencies also offer PCR tests. More convenient are rapid Antigen tests that give answers in about 15 minutes being manufactured by major companies such as Abbott and Roche. Antigen test kits for use at home by smaller companies such as Cellex and Orasure are still in process of being certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; they will give you an immediate result and promise to be inexpensive. In principle, family members gathering for a holiday or business colleagues that wanted a face-to-face meeting could pre-test themselves, providing an additional layer of safety. These are also useful for healthcare workers, or for student populations, that need to be tested frequently.

But tests aside, the core measures to protect yourself and your loved ones remain the behavioral safety measures: wear masks, avoid crowded indoor situations, wash your hands.  

Al Hammond was trained as a scientist (Stanford, Harvard) but became a distinguished science journalist, reporting for Science (a leading scientific journal) and many other technical and popular magazines and on a daily radio program for CBS. He subsequently founded and served as editor-in-chief for 4 national science-related publications as well as editor-in-chief for the United Nation’s bi-annual environmental report. More recently, he has written, edited, or contributed to many national assessments of scientific research for federal science agencies. Dr. Hammond makes his home in Chestertown on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

 

Filed Under: Health Homepage, Health Portal Lead

Department of Health Offers COVID-19 Exposure Tracking App

November 13, 2020 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

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Maryland’s Department of Health launched its MD COVID Alert system Tuesday in an effort to bolster the state’s contact tracing effort and combat the virus as the infection rate climbs.

“MD COVID Alert complements our traditional contact tracing efforts to notify users of possible exposure to help contain the virus,” Robert R. Neall, Maryland’s Health secretary, said in a statement. “I encourage Marylanders to use MD COVID Alert to help protect the people around them, including those they might not know directly.”

This COVID-19 exposure alert system is a phone application that uses Bluetooth Low Energy technology to track its users and notify them that they may have been exposed to a person who has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Beginning Tuesday, iPhone and Android users will receive push notifications inviting them to download the software. The program can be enabled by setting iPhone users’ region to Maryland in their Exposure Notifications in their phone’s settings menu; Android users can install the app through the Google Play Store.

Once downloaded, the program will assign participants a random ID, or a computer-generated string of numbers. Random IDs are to change every 10-20 minutes so as not to identify users or track their location.

The participant’s phone will regularly track and download the random IDs that have been associated with positive COVID-19 test results and compare them to the IDs of other users whom the participant’s phone has recorded close contact with within 48-hours of a positive test or the onset of symptoms.

iPhone users can identify their exposure date by opening the Exposure Notifications menu in their phone settings. For Android users, the date will appear in the app’s exposure alert.

According to the COVID Link website, exposure dates are displayed as an approximated 24-hour period to preserve participant anonymity.

Users can alert the program that they have tested positive by entering a verification code sent to them by a contact tracer during the Department of Health’s case investigation.

If there is a confirmed match, the program will alert users of the date of their potential exposure based on the date, amount of time and proximity of the user to the confirmed case. No other information, including exposure location, is shared.

If users receive an exposure notification, they are urged to track their symptoms, get tested and quarantine themselves. Users may receive a call from a contact tracer if they are identified by a person who contracted the virus.

App users are anonymous, data is not collected from their smartphone and their location isn’t tracked. The system, administered by the Office of Enterprise Technology, uses Bluetooth rather than GPS tracking to allow the app to send alerts to people without identifying where the contact was made or whom each phone belongs to.

According to the program’s privacy policy, data is stored on the user’s smartphone for 14 days and is shared only if “and until the user has a positive COVID-19 diagnosis and elects to share this information within the system.”

“Privacy is important. MD COVID Alert does not collect, transmit, or store personal information of users, and the system is completely anonymous,” Dr. Katherine Feldman, MDH Contact Tracing Unit Director, said in a statement. “We’re asking Marylanders to add their smartphones to the fight against COVID-19 by using MD COVID Alert.”

The program is compatible with similar systems deployed in Washington, D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Nevada, North Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming. Users who travel to these areas will continue to receive exposure notifications if they come into close contact with an infected individual.

According to the COVID Link website, officials are hoping the app will soon be interoperable with Virginia’s infection alert system, and recommend that users who frequent Maryland, D.C. and Virginia use the system that is compatible with the region where they spend the most time.

Participation is free, voluntary and can be disabled at any time. Those who choose to participate can opt-out by removing the app from their Android device, disabling the feature on their Apple device, turning off their Bluetooth capability or powering down their phone.

The app is not available for iPads, tablets, or smartwatches.

By Hannah Gaskill

Filed Under: Health Homepage Tagged With: Android, app, contact tracing, coronavirus, Covid-19, exposure alert, google play store, Health, iPhone

In Wake of Scandal, UMMS Embraces Ethics Reforms, Lawmakers Are Told

October 29, 2020 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

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More than a year after a conflict of interest scandal led to the resignation of top officials — and the mayor of Baltimore — the University of Maryland Medical System is “a new organization in a new place,” agency leaders told state lawmakers on Wednesday.

During a briefing for a House panel, a trio of officials laid out the steps the system has taken to bring in new leadership, prevent board member conflicts of interest, and empower lower-level staff to serve as potential whistleblowers.

The reforms the 13-hospital system has adopted follow the 2019 scandal that resulted in the resignation of UMMS’ president and CEO and several board members, including Mayor Catherine E. Pugh (D). She stepped down from the board and her municipal post — and is now serving a prison sentence — after being convicted of fraud regarding sales of a self-published children’s book.

“We have evolved quite a lot,” said Donna Jacobs, UMMS’ head of government affairs. “We certainly have now a very engaged and committed board, responsible and responsive to conflict of interest issues and considerations.”

Jacobs said the system has adopted all 24 recommendations for structural and internal reform crafted by the General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Audits. In addition, the system has a new conflict of interest policy and training requirement for board members.

Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) and legislative leaders slammed UMMS leaders last year following media reports that board members, including some who had served for many years, had lucrative contracts with the system.

Chief Compliance Officer Lisa Adkins, a new hire, told lawmakers the system is committed to a “culture of compliance” throughout the 28,000-employee organization. A whistleblower hotline has been established for workers who want to raise a concern anonymously.

“Part of building that culture of compliance is also making sure that our employees feel comfortable in raising their hand and letting us know if they have a concern or they see something amiss or a concern that they would like to have addressed,” she said.

UMMS’ new general counsel, Aaron Rabinowitz, noted that the president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital just resigned from the board of pharmaceutical giant Moderna, a company working on a potential COVID-19 vaccine, to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.

When those things happen, he said, UMMS reviews its policies. “Just because it didn’t happen here doesn’t mean it couldn’t,” Rabinowitz said. “So we’re constantly learning and trying to make sure we’re doing whatever would be considered best in class.”

By Bruce DePuyt

Filed Under: Health Homepage Tagged With: compliance, conflict of interest, Ethics, Health, reform, umms, University of Maryland Medical System, whistleblower

COVID-19 on the Shore after Eight Months with Dr. William Huffner

October 27, 2020 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

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The last time the Spy sat down with Dr. William Huffner, UM Shore Regional Health’s chief medical officer, was March 13 of this year. While the country was waking up to the severe threat of COVID-19, it was also before Governor Larry Hogan would issue his “stay-at-home” order for the state of Maryland, and before any cases of coronavirus had been reported on the Mid-Shore.

Since that afternoon in mid-March, the Mid-Shore has had approximately 3,290 cases of COVID and 80 deaths related to the pandemic. It has been a trying time for Dr. Huffner and his colleagues, but as he notes in our most recent interview, he is incredibly proud of the way Shore Regional Health has been able to perform during the crisis. In particular, Huffner stresses that Shore was at a significant advantage, given its relationship with the University of Maryland Medical System with its network of specialists and access to equipment and personal protection.

And while Dr. Huffner has been pleased with his team’s response so far, he is the first to say that the Mid-Shore is not out of the woods. With the arrival of colder weather and evidence that points to a new surge in local cases, vigilance, including social distancing, mask-wearing, and hands-washing, are the essential tools to limit the community’s exposure over the next several months as the world waits for a vaccine in 2021.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about Shore Regional Health and COVID information please go here.

 

 

Filed Under: Health Homepage, Health Homepage Highlights, Health Portal Lead, News Homepage, News Portal Lead

Topping Off at UM Shore Medical Campus at Cambridge Marks Milestone

October 15, 2020 by Spy Desk Leave a Comment

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The “topping off” of University of Maryland Shore Medical Campus at Cambridge on Monday, September 20, 2020 marked an important milestone in the construction progress for UM Shore Regional Health’s state of the art, freestanding medical facility that will serve Dorchester County and the surrounding area. While the COVID-19 pandemic precluded a traditional public celebration for the topping off, during the previous week, an open house invitation from UM Shore Regional Health to the community enabled scores of community leaders and local residents to come to the construction site to sign the facility’s top beam before it was lifted into place.

On schedule for construction completion in summer 2021 with an opening date scheduled for mid-September, the new UM Shore Medical Campus, located at Cambridge Marketplace on Route 50 at Woods Road, will house a 39,000 square foot emergency care center with an adjacent helipad and a wide array of outpatient care, including physician offices, diagnostic and rehabilitation services, to the citizens of Dorchester County.

According to UM SRH President and CEO Ken Kozel, the Cambridge project is the culmination of intensive collaboration between health care leaders, local community members, state and county government officials and physicians. “I am so grateful to everyone who has worked with UM Shore Regional Health and University of Maryland Medical System to help us make our vision for the future of health care in Dorchester County come to life,” he said.

Keith McMahan, UM SRH Board chair, noted that UM Shore Medical Campus at Cambridge is the latest in a series of major health care facility construction and renovation projects dating back to 2010. These include UM Shore Emergency Center at Queenstown, UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown Emergency Department, the Clark Comprehensive Breast Center and the Diagnostic and Imaging Center, and UM Shore Medical Pavilions at Cambridge, Chestertown, Denton and Easton.

“Now it is Dorchester County’s turn, as we celebrate the real progress being made in the construction of University of Maryland Shore Medical Campus at Cambridge,” said McMahan. “The completion of the of this comprehensive, state of the art health care facility will further realize Shore Regional Health’s goal of providing quality health care, close to home, for residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties.”

Filed Under: Health Homepage, Health Portal Lead

YMCA of the Chesapeake on Keeping Safe

October 12, 2020 by YMCA of the Chesapeake Leave a Comment

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As the YMCA opens its doors throughout the Eastern Shore, it’s going to special lengths to keeps its members and visitors safe.  The Y produced the following video to reinforce their commitment during the coronavirus pandemic.

This video is approximately one minute in length. For more information about the YMCA of the Chesapeake please go here.

Filed Under: Health Homepage

Exit Interview: Patti Willis Looks Back at Healthcare’s Transition on the Mid-Shore

August 19, 2020 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

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The Spy “Exit Interview” series is part journalism and part oral history. Over the last eleven years, the Spy has interviewed dozen of local leaders at the moment of their retirement to reflect on their work and some of the challenges they have faced in their professional careers.

We continue with our chat with Patti Willis, Shore Regional Health senior’s long-serving vice president for communications.

For more than four decades, Patti has had a front-row seat in watching the rapid and sometimes controversial health care changes on her native Eastern Shore. In her Spy interview, she recounts the transition from independent community hospitals to one sizeable regional organization serving five counties.

Patti also shares what lessons she’s learned over this complicated process, as well as her observations

Filed Under: Health Homepage, Health Homepage Highlights, Health Portal Highlights

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