Thank You to Our Volunteers!

This week, we're celebrating National Volunteer Appreciation Week and it is a special opportunity for GBMC HealthCare to pay tribute to the volunteers who devote their time, energy, and talent to serving the patients and associates at our hospital. We cannot achieve our mission of health, healing, and hope without them.

Volunteering is a great way to give back to the community and help those in need. With more than 900 volunteers in the hospital and at Gilchrist, GBMC has one of the largest volunteer auxiliaries in Maryland.

Our volunteers give selflessly to others, and they understand the value and importance of a friendly smile and the comfort of kind words in the healing process. The efforts of our volunteers are rewarding for them, in addition to being of great service to our patients and our employees. I’m extremely grateful for their dedication and hard work and for the wonderful job that they do.

This week, I was able to attend a few of the volunteer appreciation lunches to serve food, have a bite to eat and to say, “thank you” to them. I really enjoyed myself and was reminded again that at GBMC we are truly blessed to have such a fantastic volunteer auxiliary.

To all our volunteers, you’re a critical part of our healthcare team and I thank you for dedicating your time to make our health care system better.

How Good is GBMC as a Place to Work? Hearing from Our People
Among my responsibilities as the Chief Executive, I must ensure that GBMC is constantly in action to improve as an organization to work for. Our fourth aim is to exhibit our joy in serving others. This is not possible if our people are not feeling the support of our company. If they do not feel supported, they cannot fully engage in the other three aims of delivering the best health outcome with the best care experience and the least waste of resources.

So, every year we ask our people to complete our Employee Engagement Survey.

The survey is open through this coming Monday, April 23, and it should only take a few minutes to complete. I ask that all our employees complete the survey honestly. We need to know what you think to make the GBMC HealthCare system an even better place to work.

The survey is administered by Press Ganey, who compiles the data for us. We at GBMC never see individual responses. Your responses to the survey will remain CONFIDENTIAL. If you do, however, choose to include additional comments, these will be shared with your manager, but your name will not be given.
This summer, all employees will receive feedback on the survey results and action plans will be developed based on these results. Many of you last year asked for a shorter survey so this year the survey has 11 fewer questions!

Thank you so much for taking the survey.

If you have any questions about the survey, please call your Human Resource Business Partner.

Put on Your Red Shoes and Let’s Go for A Walk!
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the statistics are quite alarming. Did you know that on average, there are over 320,000 victims of rape and sexual assault, a year, in the United States and in 8 out of 10 cases of rape, the victim knew the person who sexually assaulted them?

Our Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) and Domestic Violence programs do so much for our community and we are grateful for their work in helping the victims of sexual assault and in educating the community to reduce these attacks. The assessment and treatment of victims of sexual assault are very complex. Expertise and caring are required not only to address the medical and psychological needs of the patient but also to complete the forensic work necessary to aid law enforcement in the identification of the perpetrator and to see that justice is served.

GBMC also serves survivors of domestic violence, including survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Our domestic violence program includes providing 24/7 in-house victim advocacy.

Sexual assault and domestic violence patients not only get quality medical-forensic treatment but also receive much-needed crisis intervention and safety planning. Under the leadership of, Laura Clary, our SAFE program is growing and expanding in new directions helping us to better meet our mission of health, healing, and hope for those in our community and our vision of serving everyone the way we want our own loved ones served.

Registered nurses in GBMC’s SAFE program are specifically trained and certified by the Maryland Board of Nursing to provide care for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence of all ages in a confidential, non-judgmental atmosphere. At no cost to the patient, these nurses focus on re-empowering survivors to begin the healing process, in addition to working toward ending sexual assault and IPV in the community.

To date, GBMC’s Domestic Violence Program has provided services to approximately 1,000 individuals and our SAFE program sees close to 200 patients annually. We come nowhere close to covering the cost of these programs with health insurance billing, so we require the financial help of the community.

So, tomorrow, Saturday, April 21, I encourage everyone to grab their friends and family and come out to the GBMC campus for our third annual Walk A Mile In Her Shoes®: The International March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault, and Gender Violence. Men, women, and children will walk a mile around GBMC’s campus with many in red high heels (or red Converse). All proceeds from the event will benefit GBMC’s Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) and Domestic Violence programs.

To learn more about how you can continue to help victims and this critical program that supports the health and wellness of our community click here. I hope that you will come out and walk with us and/or financially support the event.

Congratulations Harry!!
Harry S. Johnson, Esq., previous Chair of the Board of Directors and current member of our GBMC HealthCare Inc. Board, is being recognized with a lifetime achievement award by the Daily Record publication. This award recognizes attorneys and judges whose body of work over their careers makes them stand out. They are well respected in their profession, active in their community, and dedicated to growing the next generation of legal leaders.

Harry’s been involved with GBMC since the mid-1980s as a lawyer handling medical negligence cases on behalf of GBMC and its physicians. He was an inspiring and strong leader as Chairman from 2011 to 2014.

For those of you who know Harry, you know he is a very passionate man who has also accomplished a great deal in his life. As a partner at the law firm of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, he has become one of the most distinguished attorneys in Maryland and is a past President of the Maryland State Bar Association. He serves on many prestigious committees of the American Bar Association and has served a myriad of community organizations through the years.

I can’t think of anyone who is more deserving of this award than Harry Johnson!
Congratulations!