A Challenging Year coming to a Close

As 2022 ends, I would like to thank all my GBMC colleagues for everything you have done as the pandemic waxed and waned, and as we dealt with workforce shortages and financial challenges. You never lost sight of our vision phrase and always stepped up to provide the care we want for our own loved ones to every patient, every time. 

Additionally, I want to thank our community for coming back to GBMC for care as the risk of serious illness from COVID-19 has been reduced, thanks in large part to people getting immunized. Our Emergency Department sustained volumes that have been the highest in our history while other local hospitals have seen reductions. 

Thank you for trusting us with your care. It is an honor to serve you.

Even though we experienced challenges in 2022, we accomplished a lot as well. Let’s reflect on a few of them:

 

--Readers of Baltimore STYLE magazine named GBMC “Best ER/Hospital” and “Best Vein Clinic”

--Our Primary Stroke Center was re-certified by the Joint Commission

--81 members of our medical staff across 40 specialties were named a “Top Doc” by Baltimore magazine 

--GBMC was recognized by the readers of The Daily Record as the Best Hospital in Maryland

--GBMC HealthCare was noted as a Top Health System to Work For by Forbes. A total of 262 hospitals and health systems were included and GBMC HealthCare was among Maryland’s top three!

--Baltimore's Child magazine "Reader's Choice" poll recognized GBMC HealthCare as Best ER for Kids,” “Best Pediatric Vision Care,” and “Best Place to Deliver a Baby.” GBMC was also named runner-up for Best Pediatric Hospital

--GBMC was recognized as one of America’s Best Maternity Hospitals 2022 by Newsweek

--We were awarded the Joint Commission Advanced Certification in Perinatal Care

--GBMC was recognized on the 2022 Honor Roll for the Executive Alliance - A Catalyst for Women Leaders in Maryland

--GBMC was named “Best ER/Hospital” and “Best Vein Clinic” in Baltimore Jewish Times list of “Best of Jewish Baltimore”

--Six of our nursing colleagues were recognized as winners in Baltimore magazine’s 2022 Excellence in Nursing! 

--GBMC HealthCare was recognized by healthcare supply chain leader Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) as a “Best 50” healthcare provider

This short list recognizes only a few accomplishments. What others shall we celebrate? Please share your thoughts.

I would like to again offer my heartfelt thanks to our doctors, nurses, other clinicians, and support staff, for your hard work on the frontlines and for your courage, strength, generosity, and perseverance. 

Let me say again that it is an absolute honor and pleasure to work alongside you, and I look forward to overcoming the financial challenges that face us and gaining from the opportunities that await us in the year ahead to continue our work toward our vision of being the true community-based system of care that can deliver to everyone the care that we want for our own loved ones

Wishing you peace, good health, and happiness in the New Year.

Happy Holidays and Thank you!!

The holiday season is a great time to reflect on our accomplishments and our on-going challenges. 2022 has seen the GBMC HealthCare System rise to the occasion once again in serving our community with health, healing, and hope. Workforce shortages and the upward inflationary spiral of the cost of almost every input to the delivery of healthcare have placed significant stress on our system, but we continue to work on the promise of our vision to be the community-based system of care that can deliver to every patient, every time, the care that we would want for our own loved ones. 

Our clinicians, support staff and volunteers have led us through the toughest of times, and I am grateful to them. Their dedication and hard work in taking care of our patients is remarkable. I wish you all a peaceful and joyful holiday season. 

To the patients and their families who put their trust in us every day – thank you for making GBMC your healthcare partner. 

To our donors for their generosity – thank you for the countless initiatives you have funded and for believing that our region deserves specialized services and state-of-the-art technology even when health insurance resources are not there to cover it. 

Together, once again, we have advanced the quality of healthcare in our community, and we are excited to do even more in 2023 to further the health and wellness of our neighbors.

Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season and a prosperous 2023!

Congratulations!!
Paul Celano, MD, FACP, FASCO, The Herman and Walter Samuelson Medical Director of the Sandra and Malcolm Berman Cancer Institute, was recently appointed to the Maryland State Council on Cancer Control. The Council is a 25-member body appointed by the Governor that works to educate and advise government officials, public and private organizations, and the general public concerning policies, programs and innovations to reduce the incidence and mortality of cancer in Maryland.

Way to go, Dr. Celano!

Working to Attract Nurses to Our Team

Nurses are the backbone of a hospital. We are blessed at GBMC with an outstanding nursing staff. Like all other hospitals, however, we are having a difficult time having enough nurses to get the job done. We were already entering a shortage before the pandemic and COVID-19 only made it worse. The shortage has triggered a “call to the market” as salaries have gone up, and it will only be a matter of time before the supply of nurses catches up to the demand for them.

But what can we do in the meantime? We need to work to make GBMC the best place for a nurse to work so we can keep the nurses we have and attract nurses from other organizations. 

Every two weeks, I spend an hour welcoming our new people at employee orientation. My task at orientation is to begin to enroll our new colleagues in our vision. I was so pleased to see so many nurses at this week’s orientation.  

Our new Chief Nursing Officer, Angie Feurer, MSN, RN, NEA-BC; has been working with our Chief Human Resources Officer, Anna-Maria Palmer; and our Vice President of Marketing and Philanthropy, Jenny Coldiron; and their teams on creative ways to increase our nursing workforce. They have created a campaign titled “Discover the GBMC Difference” as a way to highlight the uniqueness of GBMC HealthCare. The photo (left) gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the recent recording of television spots that will start to air early next month. We also will distribute this message through various social media avenues, like Facebook and LinkedIn, and our employees can help us by sharing these posts with their social networks.

Also, we have restructured our supplemental positions so that nurses will be paid more according to their years of experience and will get increased rates for committing to work more supplemental shifts. This is allowing us to invest in our own nurses to take care of our patients rather than relying on agency nurses.  

In addition, we are rewarding our employees for assisting with our recruiting efforts . Employees can receive a $5,000 bonus for referring a full-time hospital bedside nurse who is hired at GBMC, and they can receive $2,500 for a part-time bedside nurse. At Gilchrist, we are offering a $2,000 referral bonus for day-shift nurses and a $4,000 referral bonus for night-shift nurses. Human Resources continues to attend career fairs at all area colleges and universities that train nurses. 

We are committed to ensuring that all GBMC nurses are compensated fairly. We offer many benefits to our nurses, including nursing scholarships, a loan repayment program, tuition prepayment for continuing education, and a last semester repayment program. GBMC has adopted a professional excellence model that allows nurses to learn and grow within their specialty and allows them to focus their interests on one of three tracks: quality and safety, education, or administration. 

Our healthcare system benefits from a talented and engaged nursing workforce, and we will continue to do whatever we can to attract and retain our nurses.

Getting Together

Yesterday, we held our annual employee Holiday Meal gathering for staff. This yearly tradition offers our workers the opportunity to eat delicious food, spend time with one another, and enjoy the festivities.  As usual, music filled the air as we were entertained by the talented members of the GBMC Holiday Choir.  Many thanks to the Food and Nutrition staff for preparing a wonderful meal and to everyone who helped to make the event a festive and memorable occasion. Thank you to our employees for all you do every day and I wish you all Happy Holidays!

Congratulations!!

Evelyn Bowmaster, MAS, BSN, RN, CPHQ, CPPS, Director, Quality & Patient Safety, Ambulatory Services for GBMC HealthCare, recently received the Regent’s Award from the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

Eve, who has been with GBMC for 17 years, is an outstanding leader who oversees continual improvement for GBMC Health Partners. She has also played a critical role in our COVID testing and vaccine programs.

We are delighted to see her hard work be recognized. The Regent’s Award is given annually to a healthcare executive and ACHE member who has made significant contributions to the advancement of healthcare management and the achievement of the organization’s goals.

Please join me in congratulating Eve!

Readers of Baltimore STYLE magazine recently named us “Best ER/Hospital” and “Best Vein Clinic.” I am thankful for the marvelous validation we receive from the community and for their trust in GBMC to meet their healthcare needs.

Fabulous Improvement Work in the Pharmacy (again)

It is frustrating to look for an item at a store and find an empty shelf where it was supposed to be. While annoying, we deal with it and move on. When it comes to obtaining medication from an automated dispensing cabinet (ADC), there is no option to ignore the stock-out, as the medicine must be provided to the patient. What ensues is extra work by Nursing and Pharmacy that provides no additional value to the patient.

Using our Lean Management System (LMS), the Pharmacy team under their Executive Director, Yuliya Klopouh and led by Perry Shafner, Medication Safety Officer, endeavored to reduce non-value-added work created by ADC stock-outs. To further drive out waste, two additional goals were set: to decrease the number of times the Pharmacy had to restock the ADCs and to remove stagnant, low-use inventory that sits and expires. The results were promising. Control charts confirmed significant decreases of stock-outs and Pharmacy restocks in the units that were optimized. Around $2,500 of low-use medications were removed and reallocated.

Pharmacy was waiting for the unit-specific work to show an impact on overall inpatient stock-outs. Finally, the cumulative control chart began to show a shift – in the wrong direction! Sequential data points showed an increase in stock-outs, which was the opposite of the intended goal.

Following the model for improvement, Pharmacy studied the specific stock-outs and identified the root cause together with other opportunities. The findings were acted on by adjusting inventory levels, and a prediction was made that stock-outs would begin to decrease significantly. The following two weeks, inpatient stock-outs decreased below average, as anticipated. By following the model for improvement, an initial setback was leveraged into an opportunity for further improvement.

This work is especially important given the progress of the Promise Project.  The Pharmacy Department should be fully prepared to implement a model that assures reliable medication management on the units with no stockouts and consistent inventory.  

I am so proud of Yuliya, Perry, and the entire Pharmacy team. They have always embraced continuous improvement in the way they run the Pharmacy.  GBMC and all our patients benefit from their work!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I tend to focus on what is not going well and needs to be improved. With our current financial challenges, I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about ways to lower our expenses and increase our revenue. So, this being Thanksgiving week, I really need some time to think about what I am really thankful for. 

My family, especially my wife, Tracey, is a source of strength and comfort for me and I do not thank them enough.  

At work, I am blessed with an outstanding group of Senior teammates. I am truly thankful for them. And we are very fortunate to have the best clinicians of all types – physicians, nurses, advanced practitioners, and other allied health professionals. Where would we be without them? I am grateful for all that they do.

The unsung heroes are all our support staff and volunteers. I am incredibly grateful for them and all the value that they deliver every day. I am grateful for our patients who give us a reason to serve. 

I must also thank everyone in the community who helps me in some way – from our police and firefighters to the people who work at my dry cleaner and the supermarket.

 It is a cliché to say it, but I have so much to be thankful for. 

So, to everyone who reads the blog: Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. What are you thankful for? I’d love to hear about it – please leave me a comment!

GBMC Thanksgiving Day Turkeys and the Community
As per our annual tradition, GBMC provided turkeys to our employees and volunteers across our healthcare system to share with their families during Thanksgiving. We do this to say thank you for everything they do throughout the year to move us closer to our vision. 

While many on our team receive their turkeys, many choose to donate their turkeys to local charities. Chaplain Joe Hart and his team oversee this work along with Richelle Tighe from our Human Resources Department, who organizes the entire turkey distribution. 

This week, I received a nice note from a local church thanking us for the donation of 60 turkeys that will be distributed to those in need with their holiday Christmas basket.

This is a wonderful tradition, and I look forward to sustaining it in the future. 

Kudos!
Please join me in congratulating Angela “Angie” Feurer, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, as the new Chief Nursing Officer (CNO). Angie has been serving as our interim CNO since July of 2022, and during this time she has made significant strides in our nurse recruitment and retention efforts. 

Angie has been a nurse for 24 years, the majority spent in leadership roles. In addition to her time as interim CNO, Angie has served as Director of our Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, Medicine/Telemetry, SAFE, and the Stroke Program. She played a critical role as Incident Commander throughout the cyber-attack and COVID-19 and continues to utilize these crisis mitigation skills as we face other challenges.

In her role as CNO, she values and looks forward to continuing interdisciplinary collaboration throughout the health system. I am grateful for Angie’s stepping up as CNO, and I look forward to working closely with her. 

Congratulations also to Michael Stein, MHSA, FACMPE, who has been promoted to Vice President, Clinical and Support Operations. In this new position, Mike will oversee oncology, radiology, laboratory, volunteers, food and nutrition, environmental services, patient transport, and the Service Response Center. 

Since starting at GBMC in 2014, he has been a proven leader for our organization. As Executive Director of Oncology Services, he has done an exceptional job in enhancing the care of cancer patients at GBMC and has led efforts in fundraising, marketing, contracting, performance improvement, business planning, and strategy for the oncology service line. He played an integral role in the planning and design of the Sandra R. Berman Pavilion, the future home of the Berman Cancer Institute.

Please join me in congratulating Mike!

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. It was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a black transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorates all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester's death and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Transgender people often experience prejudice when accessing healthcare services. Understanding the unique needs of our patients can help improve their healthcare experience.  Their needs include transition-related or gender-affirming medical care designed to align physical characteristics with gender identity. Transgender individuals may also have unique health needs in reproductive care, gynecologic and urologic care, and mental health. By taking time to learn more about the transgender experience in health care, you can play a part in bettering the lives of others.

So as part of living our vision phrase, “To every patient, every time we will provide the care that we would want for our own loved ones,” tomorrow (Friday 11/18) at noon we will recognize the day with a special ceremony in the Civiletti Conference Center.  Please click here to RSVP to attend in-person or virtually and/or to submit your ally pledge to support LGBTQIA+ equality and receive a ribbon of support from the Pride Committee.

I want to thank our Diversity & Inclusion Council for putting together this ceremony. I would also like to thank all the attendees who will take the time to join and to reflect on the lives we’ve lost to transphobia.

Celebrating Nurse Practitioner Week
There are over 355,000 nurse practitioners nationwide who provide care to millions of Americans. November 13-19 marks National Nurse Practitioner Week, and it is a good opportunity to highlight the excellent Nurse Practitioners working in our hospital, in our physician practices, and in Gilchrist. Please join me in thanking them this week for their tireless efforts which often go unrecognized.

An Innovative Model to Generate Health of Mind and Body

The holiday season can be a tremendously stressful time for many individuals who are struggling with a mental illness such as depression and anxiety. The pressure of trying to do everything, planning the perfect holiday, traveling to visit family, saying yes to each get-together, meeting those year-end deadlines, and the financial burdens of holiday shopping can take its toll on those who are prone to anxiety, depression and stress.

This week, Rachel Smolowitz, Ph.D., program manager of Sheppard Pratt Integrated Behavioral Health at GBMC, discusses our collaborative care model that delivers behavioral health services within our GBMC Health Partners advanced primary care practices, and answers some questions about the program. This is great work that we are doing with our Sheppard Pratt colleagues to move “upstream” to address issues such as anxiety and depression early in their course. 

Q:  How is a patient referred and what are some of the challenges that our Collaborative Care Model is helping to fix?
Many people struggle with the question “How do I find mental health support?” and Collaborative Care answers it clearly: “Talk to your primary care provider.” The primary care providers at GBMC can help their patients connect to a mental health provider either in the office, remotely, or in the community. Once a patient is participating in Collaborative Care, our goal is to help them develop the skills they need to become their own therapist and meet their goals. 

Q:  Beyond the benefit of patient convenience, why is it important to have a behavioral health program in the primary care setting?
Unfortunately, our society continues to have a stigma against mental illness. Many people are uncomfortable talking or thinking about mental illnesses even though about 25% of people experience mental illnesses. Having services in primary care helps to reduce the stigma of mental illness by addressing it as an important part of a person’s health. 

Q:  Do you think treating mental health conditions in primary care makes sense?
Another benefit to having behavioral health treatment in primary care is that the mind and body are interconnected. People may struggle with worries about issues like diabetes and hypertension, which could get in the way of complying with their treatment. Getting support means that they can learn how to manage their anxiety and take better care of themselves.  

Q:  What has surprised you about practicing this Collaborative Care?
I have been very pleasantly surprised to learn that brief, focused treatment is very effective in helping people to meet their goals. We start out working on developing goals that will be meaningful for people. We then identify some skills for them to learn and emphasize “homework” in between appointments. We also measure how they’re doing each month and discuss with them how their scores are improving over the months. 

Thank you…
I would like to thank our transporters who work hard to make sure that our patients move efficiently within the hospital. This week is National Patient Transport Week (Nov. 6—12).

Often, these colleagues are dealing with anxious patients who don’t know just what to expect on their way to their next destination within our hospital. While their primary role is to move people, they also help allay the fears of patients through their kindness and compassion. 

I want to thank Anthony Anderson, our Director of the Service Response Center and Patient Transport, and his amazing staff for all they do.

This week is also National Radiologic Technology Week and Forensic Nurses Week. I would like to thank all our registered radiologic technologists (RTs) and our forensic nurses for their very important roles in serving our patients. Please join me in saluting our RTs and forensic nurses for their commitment to quality, patient-centered care, for their hard work, and for their valuable role in helping us achieve our vision.

Way to Go…
We recently learned that GBMC received Primary Stroke Center re-certification from The Joint Commission.

This re-certification acknowledges that we have well-developed systems to care for acute stroke patients and help them improve their long-term outcomes. This recognition is a testament to the cohesive teamwork and evidence-based care we deliver to our stroke patients. 

I am proud of our team who worked very hard to re-certify. My deepest gratitude goes out to Ellen Deibert MD, FAHA, Medical Director of our Stroke Center and our Chief of the Division of Neurology; Barbara Smith Peace, MBA, MPH, BSN, RN, LSSGB, our Director of Quality and Patient Safety; Steve Benko, BSN, RN, CEN, Stroke Program Nurse Director; and Kristopher (Kris) Bachenberg, our new Stroke Program Manager.

Thank You to our Veterans!
Today, we will commemorate Veterans Day and take the time to remember the millions of American military personnel who have served to protect us. I want to thank our Diversity & Inclusion Council for sponsoring our organization-wide Veterans’ observance. This will be a great way to honor our employee and volunteer Veterans on our main campus, in our physician practices, and throughout Gilchrist. I know that I speak for all of us at GBMC HealthCare in offering our sincere gratitude for the personal sacrifices, past and present, of all our service men and women.

Providing Respectful Care to Frail Elders and Those at the End of Life

In honor of National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, I wanted to thank all our Gilchrist colleagues for all they do. Gilchrist has created an exciting new joint venture with Luminis Health to provide the older residents of Anne Arundel County with the world-class continuum of geriatric services they need and deserve. 

LuminisHealth is regarded as a leading health system with inpatient and outpatient locations in eight counties, and Gilchrist is a nonprofit with more than a quarter-century of experience delivering exceptional elder medical care, hospice, and palliative care. Named the Luminis Health Gilchrist Lifecare Institute, this collaborative team provides comprehensive, coordinated medical care and support wherever patients need it, whether in a residential care community, a long-term care or assisted living facility, or in the comfort of their own home. Services are personalized to meet the unique needs of each patient. 

Anne Arundel is one of fastest-growing counties in Maryland. The county’s population has increased by more than 20 percent during the past 20 years and is now nearly 600,000 people in all, making it larger than Baltimore City. More than 15 percent of Anne Arundel’s current population is 65 years and over, according to the U.S. Census.  

The goal of the Institute is to better meet the needs of the elderly population and improve their quality of life while also reducing unnecessary hospitalizations. 

During the past six months of the joint venture, the Institute has achieved Medicare certification, created an inpatient palliative team on site at Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center, providing services 7 days a week, and launched the Geriatric Supportive Home Services program, where a primary care provider visits patients where they live.

I want to congratulate and thank the team for their commitment to treat every person the way they want their own loved one treated.

Congratulations!
I have always talked about how our physicians being named in the Baltimore magazine “Top Docs” issue is an extraordinary honor; well this year is no different! The community has again reminded us that GBMC HealthCare has the best surgeons, internists, pediatricians, family physicians, and other specialists in the market, and what makes this recognition special is that everyone on the list was chosen by their peers. 

This year’s issue acknowledges changes in medical care specialties with some new categories.   I want to applaud the 81 members of our medical staff across 40 specialties named a “Top Doc” along with Raya Wehbeh, MD, sleep medicine physician and GBMC’s Medical Director for Sleep Medicine. She was one of several physicians, from a pool of hundreds in the Baltimore area, selected to be profiled. Twelve members of the GBMC medical staff have made this list five years or more, and seven physicians who have been on the list 10 years or more.  

To all the “Top Doctors” at GBMC and Dr. Wehbeh: Congratulations from all of us! We are very proud of you. To view a listing of our “Top Doctors” and to learn more about who they are, please visit here. 

Since we are on the topic of Baltimore magazine, believe it or not, the publication is currently collecting votes for its 2023 Excellence in Nursing issue. Anyone can nominate a nurse—nurse managers, colleagues, patients—they just need to fill out the online form here. The deadline for nominations is Friday, Nov. 18.  

Thank you!!
Last week was National Respiratory Care Week and National Healthcare Facilities and Engineering Week (Oct. 23-29). I would like to acknowledge all of our respiratory therapists for playing a critical role in our healthcare system, especially during this surge of viral respiratory illness. Please join me in thanking them and our fabulous facilities team.

Not All “Innovation” Adds Value for the Consumer

On Tuesday, I had the honor of participating in this year’s JMore JBiz “Innovation in Health Care” panel discussion.  

The program was moderated by Gary Stein, and I was joined by Jon Hershfield, MFT, Director of The Center for OCD and Anxiety at Sheppard Pratt; Dr. Helen Hughes, Medical Director for Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Office of Telemedicine; Alan H. Shikani, MD, FACS, Chief of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at LifeBridge Sinai Hospital, and Adam Silverman, DPM, Wound Care Medical Director for MVS Wound Care & Hyperbarics.

The main topic was the current state of health care in this country and highlighting some new advancements in various medical fields and the challenges each of the panel members envision for the next couple of years.  

I highlighted our use of the patient-centered medical home and the accountability we have with our patients, especially those with chronic disease, to maximize their health outcomes and care experience. 

What people want from their care providers is expert care to maximize their health outcome and also to have the best possible care experience. Since most patients are not scientists, it is hard for them to know if the care they receive is truly driving their health outcome. But they can judge their care experience, especially regarding timeliness. Care that did not actually follow the evidence and drive a better health outcome may actually be judged favorably by the patient because it was fast. An example of this would be the patient who is efficiently seen and receives an antibiotic for a viral respiratory tract illness. The patient is receiving care that is not of high value but is perceived as high value by the patient because it was easy. In this case, a system that is seen as “innovative” by the patient because it is faster than other care settings is not actually a value-added improvement.

I enjoyed all of my colleagues’ presentations and I was convinced that their work was truly innovative. The one that interested me the most was that of Dr. Hughes. She described the success of Johns Hopkins in using telemedicine prompted by the pandemic and health insurers lowering the barriers to implementation. We will reach out to Dr. Hughes because GBMC has a lot to learn from her experience. 

If you are interested in watching the discussion, please visit here.

Let’s Thank...
This week, we are celebrating Pastoral Care Week (Oct. 23 – 29). This national celebration provides the opportunity to acknowledge our spiritual caregivers and their ministry with our patients.

Chaplain J. Joseph Hart and all the members of our Spiritual Support team are dedicated individuals who work very hard to meet the spiritual needs of our patients.  I would like to extend a sincere thanks to all members of our Spiritual Support Team, and our spiritual community partners, for always being there to provide compassion and comfort to patients and their families as they face a serious illness or life-threatening injury. To learn more about our Spiritual Support Services, please visit their web page.

Our Emergency Department Staff Demonstrates Their Resiliency
Over the last few years, our adult and pediatric emergency departments have been stretched to their limits. In the face of the pandemic, cyberattack and, now, workforce shortages and the surge of viral respiratory illness, our staff has demonstrated their professionalism and dedication. They have been tireless in their work to serve the community in the face of incredible adversity.

The latest increase of visits by pediatric patients with RSV and other respiratory illnesses has tested our resolve. Our peds ED and inpatient team has done a tremendous job of providing children with great care.  

I want to extend my gratitude to Theresa T. Nguyen, MD, interim Chair of Pediatrics, for communicating with the community by doing many interviews with the media. Laura B. Scott, MD, FAAP, our Director for Pediatric Inpatient & Emergency Medicine and her team have stood up against the surge and provided expert care. I also want to acknowledge Cate O’Connor-Devlin, RN, BSN, Director of Emergency Preparedness, Safety, and Security; Angela “Angie” Feurer, RN, MSN, NEA-BC; interim Chief Nursing Officer, and Mark Fisher, MSN, RN, CEN, TCRN; Senior Nurse Manager for Emergency Services, for their great leadership. Way to go team!

Get Moving to Stay in Good Health

Readers of the blog may recall that I got concerned about being overweight a few years ago when I had a high blood pressure reading. As it turned out, my blood pressure was normal. It had measured high because I had raced to give blood and I was stressed and had not taken enough time to calm down before the measurement and it was not repeated. 

The high measurement, however, had a positive effect on my health because it caused me to reflect on my weight. I was the heaviest that I had ever been in my life and my body mass index (BMI) showed that I was overweight. 

We know that being overweight, obese, or morbidly obese shortens your expected life because being overweight leads to health problems like diabetes, kidney disease, and heart disease to name just a few.

I realized that I was taking in too many calories for the amount of exercise I was getting. As for the calories, I committed to reducing my intake (but not very much because I love to eat) and I committed to getting regular exercise. My problem was that I got up early and went to work and I had many evening work commitments, so I was not getting enough exercise. The pandemic actually helped me because I had many fewer evening work commitments so I could go for a jog before dinner. If I had an evening commitment, I got up earlier to run before work (ugh). This discipline helped me lose 25 pounds and get back into a normal weight for my height. 

We should all be concerned about the obesity epidemic in our country. Our average lifespan is already going down because of the increased rate of suicide and substance abuse (coupled with the effects of COVID-19). If we don’t reduce obesity with its increased rates of chronic disease, our lifespan will go down further. 

I know that it is much easier for me to commit to exercise than it is for people with less resources, young children to care for, longer commutes, and many other valid reasons, but we must find simple ways to stay active.

So, this Saturday we are starting our Walk with a Doc program at City Springs Elementary/Middle School. This free program is for people of all ages and abilities. During each Walk with a Doc session, a GBMC doctor will provide a brief overview of a health topic and the remainder of the time they will spend time walking with patients and enjoying fun conversation. It will be a fun and safe way to go for a walk, learn about health, meet new friends, and burn more calories. Walking is something that most of us can do if we figure out how to build it into our daily schedule.

For our inaugural walk, I will be joined by James Baronas, MD, Medical Director for GBMC Health Partners Primary Care—Jonestown, along with his colleague, Priya S. Little, MD, a family medicine physician, and Wayman Scott MS, MTS, LGPC, Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Relations at Gilchrist.

We are partnering with primary care in this program because each physician, within our 12 advanced primary care practices, is accountable with you for your specific health goals, and they want to help. Our teams manage chronic diseases, but they would prefer to practice preventive medicine to help you avoid chronic disease in the first place.

If you are interested in taking steps for a healthier lifestyle and learning about a current health topic from a GBMC healthcare provider, then come out this weekend and spend some valuable time enjoying a healthy walk and fun conversation.

Hope to see you on Saturday. Keep your eyes out for information on future GBMC Walk with A Doc opportunities. 

Passing of A GBMC Giant
Earlier this week, many of us were saddened to hear about the passing of Benjamin R. Civiletti, former U.S. Attorney General (AG) and former Chair of the GBMC HealthCare Board of Directors, and for whom our Civiletti Conference Center is named.  

Ben brought a keen intellect and concern for others to both his work as AG and as a leader of our healthcare system. He became involved with GBMC due to his legal expertise and commitment to the local community. Under Ben’s leadership, GBMC expanded to better serve the community. His vision of service continues to this day as we seek to provide the care we would want for our own loved ones. 

There is no doubt that we have lost someone who was very special and a great friend to GBMC.  We will always be thankful for what Ben did for GBMC and we are truly going to miss him.

Please join me in offering our condolences to Ben’s family and friends.

October is American Pharmacists Month
At GBMC, we have always had outstanding pharmacists and technicians who really care and work hard. Over the years, our pharmacy team, led by director Yuliya Klopouh, has done an outstanding job at making our medication delivery highly reliable. Our pharmacists work with our physicians, nurses, and advanced practitioners to help maximize the health outcomes of our patients. In this era of dramatically increased drug costs, they help assure that we are not wasting resources by using expensive drugs when less costly ones will get the same outcome. Please join me in thanking them for all that they do to drive us closer to our vision.

Stepping Up to Get the Job Done

All industries continue to deal with workforce shortages. Hospitals and other healthcare providers are dealing with staffing as well. Most other industries can produce less product or shorten their hours of service. In healthcare, especially in hospitals, this is not an option. The hospital needs to be open 24 hours a day, every day.

Nurses and nursing technicians are the largest segments of the workforce of any hospital. At GBMC, we are fortunate to have so many expert, dedicated staff members who pull together no matter what the challenge to treat every patient as if they were their loved ones. Addressing the nursing workforce shortage requires a multifaceted recruitment and retention approach.  

In July, Angela “Angie” Feurer, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, stepped into the role of Interim Chief Nursing Officer. A seasoned nurse leader of 24 years, Angie has been the Director of Nursing for the Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, Medicine, Telemetry, SAFE, and the Stroke Program. She also played a critical role as an Incident Commander during the cyber-attack and COVID-19. Angie has excelled at transitioning into this role while earning her Doctor of Nursing Practice at the University of Maryland. 

The nursing shortage is a major focus of Angie’s work. The nation was already experiencing a shortage of nurses and the pandemic exacerbated the problem, with people leaving the bedside for many reasons: retiring early, needing to care for a family member, experiencing burnout, or looking for remote work opportunities. As an independent community-owned system of care, GBMC is agile enough to quickly implement innovative solutions to ensure we are recruiting and retaining top nursing talent. Here are just a few of the ways we're attracting (and keeping) the best nurses within the GBMC HealthCare System:

• Supporting our nurses as lifelong learners. We're encouraging nurses to further their education and easing their financial burden with tuition assistance, loan forgiveness, tuition discounts, scholarships, as well as reimbursing for credentialing, conferences, and certifications.  

• Pay incentives. In addition to regular market adjustments to ensure our rates of pay are competitive, we've revamped our supplemental/ASAP nursing program -- nurses who "float" to different units -- to account for a nurse's years of experience and adjusted pay rates accordingly. There are also other new pay incentives for nurses who precept new nurses, run charge, and take on-call shifts. 

• Referral bonuses for employees who refer nurses to us. If a full-time nurse is hired, the referring employee gets $5,000!

• Investing in wellness. Nursing at the bedside is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting! GBMC nurses have access to free on-campus massages, an "Oasis Room" in the Civiletti Conference Center with massage chairs and virtual meditation headsets; free yoga classes (virtual or in person); on-site acupuncture, our employee fitness center, and more opportunities for self-care. 

• Growing nursing leaders. When we recognize a talented nursing leader, we want them to stay with us. We have created clear pathways to help nurses who have furthered their education and demonstrated a commitment to GBMC ascend into hospital leadership. Tracks in the Professional Excellence Model are focused on administration, quality and safety, or education.

The nursing shortage is not a challenge we can solve overnight, but I am grateful to Angie who is working closely with our colleagues in Human Resources, Nursing Leadership, Marketing, IT, and Finance to ensure GBMC remains a premier company for nursing careers. 

One outstanding nursing career to highlight is that of Kristan Zylka, BSN, RN, who has been welcoming babies into the world at GBMC for nearly 20 years. I love seeing the sheer joy Kristan clearly takes in her nursing practice. Check out this video of her and adorable baby Amir. 

Domestic Violence Awareness Month
October is Domestic Violence (DV) Awareness Month. We shine a light on domestic violence to help women and men get through challenging and frightening circumstances, educate others about those challenges, and share resources to ensure survivors get the support they need. Under the leadership of Laura Clary, RN, FNE-A/P, SANE-A, our SAFE & DV program, serves survivors of domestic violence, including survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Sexual assault and domestic violence patients not only get quality medical-forensic treatment, but also receive crisis intervention and safety planning. Our SAFE team has worked hard to expand across our healthcare system and into the community, and our primary care and emergency department teams have been trained on the signs of abuse and the steps to take when they see red flags.  Let me thank them for their hard work and expertise, and for educating our community.

Honoring their Amazing Work
This week, we are proudly celebrating our emergency nurses during ER Nurses’ Week (Oct. 9 – 15). This year's theme of Standing Strong acknowledges that a nurse’s days in the emergency department are challenging and highlights their resiliency.  During the week, a few of our nursing colleagues were recognized for their great work this year.
--Hayley Kelly, RN, Unperilous  Hero of the Year 2022
--Jacob McNeal, RN, Adult ER Nurse of the Year 2022
--Rachel Arden, RN, Pediatric ER Nurse of the Year
--Laurie Taylor, RN, Unwavering Solider of the ER
--Robert Freund, RN, Atlas of the ER
Please join me in honoring and thanking them and all of our ER Nurses!  Pictured left to right:

Thank you!!

I want to thank all the members of our GBMC security staff, as this week is also Healthcare Safety and Security Week (Oct. 9-15). Our security officers are on the frontlines working in many locations around the hospital, including the emergency department, main entrances, and parking lots, to keep everyone safe. They work side-by-side with clinical teams in high-risk areas, employing de-escalation skills and interventions to ensure the safety of both our staff and our patients. Please join me in thanking our security staff for their hard work and for the strong commitment and diligence they display in the practice of their profession.

Care management professionals have always played a major role on our healthcare team, making a positive impact on health outcomes and cost containment. They work with patients and families, the healthcare team, and with payers, facilitating care and services while assuring that resources are utilized effectively. Although their role may be less visible than that of the direct, hands-on caregivers, care management professionals have an increasingly significant role in the health care industry. As expert advisors and advocates, they lead the patient through the often-overwhelming puzzle that is our healthcare system, finding the optimum value for the patient and assisting physicians through the identification of resources and services.  So, please join me during Case Management Week (Oct. 9-15) and thank our care managers for their hard work.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

GBMC’s Sandra and Malcolm Berman Comprehensive Breast Care Center has provided evidence-based care with kindness and compassion to patients since its inception. The Center was designed to co-locate our breast imaging and radiology experts with our outstanding breast surgeons. The Center collaborates with other members of the GBMC Sandra and Malcolm Berman Cancer Institute, including social workers, integrative care providers, and oncology support staff. 

In the spirit of continuous improvement and to ensure that our Breast Care Center stays up to date, their leadership held an off-campus retreat earlier this year. Leaders from surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, genetics, nurse navigation and the tumor registry attended the retreat. This event helped standardize diagnostic and treatment recommendations and goals of care including recommendations for genetic testing, evaluation of cases with high-risk pathology, and management of disease that has spread to the axillary lymph nodes. There are plans to continue this discussion annually, as the science is progressing rapidly. 

This group of talented professionals have an extremely collegial working relationship and they hold themselves accountable for providing our patients with optimal cancer care.

Please join me in thanking Dr. Sara Fogarty, Director of the Center, and her entire team for all that they do for GBMC and our patients.

Much to Be Thankful For…
This week, during Healthcare Foodservice Week (Oct. 2-8), I would like to thank my colleagues who work hard to keep our patients and staff fed. This group does much of its work “behind the scenes,” but their work is vital. So, when you see members of our food service staff, please thank them!

Healthcare Supply Chain Week (Oct. 2-8) is also celebrated this week and applauds resource and materials management professionals for all they do to keep us stocked with what we need to get the job done. I am so grateful to Brian Riemer, our Executive Director, Supply Chain, and his team for all they do for GBMC and our patients. 

Our pediatric nurses are a special group of medical professionals who provide expert care and compassion to young patients. Pediatric Nurses Week (Oct. 3-7) calls attention to their critical work. I want to salute the efforts of our pediatric nurses this week and their impact on their patients, families, and communities.

Please join me in celebrating all GBMC physician assistants (PAs) this week during National PA Week (Oct. 6-12). This is the week that highlights the PA profession and showcases the value they bring to today’s healthcare team. Let me thank our PAs for their commitment to their patients and for all their hard work every day.

Again, my deepest gratitude to you all for everything you do for our patients and staff!

Dealing With Financial Challenges

America’s hospitals are going through a difficult time due to workforce shortages and the lingering effects of the pandemic. Every day, we hear of another healthcare company declaring huge financial losses. Kaiser Permanente posted a $1.3 billion loss in the second quarter of this year.

GBMC is not immune to the forces in the healthcare market. Happily, we have been governed and managed well over the decades, so we have financial resources to help us weather the storm. However, our teams are working together to reduce waste and serve more patients to bring us back to a stronger financial position. 

I know that many of our colleagues are nervous, so it did not surprise me that at a recent GBMC Town Hall, I was asked a question about how we were going to get back in the black. The truth is that we are studying every expense to see if it is really required to deliver better health and better care to those we are serving. Is there a vendor who could provide the same quality of service as a vendor who is charging us more? Is there a manufacturer who could give us the same or better-quality supplies at a lower cost? We should be eliminating this waste every day to make our care more cost-effective and move toward our vision, independent of our immediate financial situation. We are working to hire clinical staff, so we can eliminate the exorbitant costs of premium labor when we use external agency staff. 

As people leave non-clinical positions, we are assessing that position. We are trying as hard as we can to protect people’s jobs. 

On the revenue side, as an example, we are trying to get people to use our joint venture with Advanced Radiology imaging center in Physicians Pavilion East, rather than choosing other imaging sites. 

We are studying further mergers and acquisitions like Gilchrist’s recent joint venture with Luminis Health Care, which is expanding access to important palliative medicine and hospice services to Anne Arundel and Prince George’s County. It will also help Gilchrist recover from challenges caused by the pandemic, such as the increased COVID-19-related mortality rate in frail elders, which resulted in fewer people utilizing end-of-life services. We have no intention of merging with a large hospital company as all hospital companies are dealing with the same need to cut costs as we are. 

So, let me thank all my colleagues for your hard work and your ideas. We will get through this together as we make the GBMC HealthCare system even better and continue to move toward our vision of being the community-based true system of care that is capable of providing every patient, every time the care that we would want for our own loved ones. 

Taking it all in
Last week, I joined other members of GBMC leadership for a walk-through of the Louis and Phyllis Friedman Building. It was great to see how far we have come since our groundbreaking ceremony approximately 13 months ago. 

Here are a couple of photos from our walk last week that show our progress. I would also like to mention that the "topping off"—or placement of the last beam—will take place next month and that the entire exterior of the structure is expected to be enclosed by the end of the calendar year. These steps will then allow us to start working on the interior of the building and ultimately to install the furniture and equipment. 

I want to thank Stacey McGreevy, Executive Vice President of Hospital Operations; and Russ Sadler, Director of Facility Planning, Design, and Construction; for their oversight of the construction and for all their work in getting us to the point of welcoming our first patient in the new space in the Fall of 2023. 

Survey Says… 

Please complete our annual Employee Engagement Survey.  The survey is open through Friday, October 7 and can be accessed by clicking here and entering your employee ID number. You can also complete the survey via the link you received in the email sent to you by Gallup, our survey vendor. The email from Gallup included a link unique to you that doesn’t require you to enter an employee ID. 

The survey is completely CONFIDENTIAL. We use a third-party vendor to ensure confidentiality. The vendor collects the data and provides it to departments as aggregated scores. Your individual responses to the questions will not be shared! If you do, however, choose to include additional comments, these will be shared with your manager, but your name will not be given. 

Please complete the survey so that we can learn what we can do to make the GBMC HealthCare System an even better place to work. Thanks!

Thank you! 

I am pleased to announce that GBMC was recently recognized by the readers of The Daily Record as the Best Hospital in Maryland. I want to thank their readers for voting for us and recognizing the excellence of our staff. 

Happy New Year!
The Jewish community is celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It is a holiday at the “head of the year” that comes at the close of the harvest when those of the Jewish faith focus on repentance. L’Shana Tovah!

Helping the Patient Make an Informed Decision on the Cost of Care is Hard

Recently, GBMC was recognized among the 16 percent of hospitals nationwide to be fully compliant with the federal hospital price transparency rule.  

According to the semi-annual hospital transparency report by PatientRightsAdvocate.org, GBMC was one of 319 hospital websites across the country, and one of only two in Maryland, to be fully compliant with federal price transparency rules.

This law is intended to make the costs of services such as X-rays, medical tests, or procedures clear to patients before they get the service. The law requires hospitals to list the cash prices for procedures on their websites in two forms: one that is easy for patients to access and that includes a cost estimator for the 300 most common services, and another that is machine-readable — essentially a spreadsheet. All of this allows patients to know what they will be billed and lets them see how much their insurance will pay and how much they will have to pay out of pocket.

Many Americans face financial hardship because they don’t have the money to pay their medical bills. In trying to fix this, our legislators want to make people aware of the costs before they get the services. This may help with elective services, but no one is going to wait to look up prices before getting care if they have an urgent or emergent problem.

A major hurdle in trying to let the patient know what he or she will have to pay is that we literally have hundreds of insurance plans in our country, and the plans have different co-pays and deductibles. On top of that, outside of Maryland, hospitals and physician groups negotiate rates with the insurers. In Maryland, we only negotiate payment rates for physician/provider bills, but hospital prices are set by the Health Services Cost Review Commission for each hospital. 

We firmly believe that transparency is needed across the healthcare delivery system allowing patients to make more informed decisions. The patient and the insurance company should pay for value. The definition of value is health outcome + care experience.

                                                                 Cost

If hospital A provides the same outcome for a clinical procedure with the same care experience as hospital B, but the care at hospital A costs twice as much as hospital B, then it only makes sense to get care at hospital B, because hospital B will be providing twice the value of hospital A.

GBMC works tirelessly to drive the waste out of healthcare, and we are a lower cost hospital than most in our market. We are also proud to make prices more transparent for our patients. I take immense pride in knowing that we are among those at the forefront of transforming healthcare in this country and that we are among our nation's transparency leaders.

Our Great General Surgery Group
I have been reflecting recently about the excellence that we have within the GBMC HealthCare system and I want to comment on a group that does outstanding work and does not get the credit it deserves. I firmly believe that GBMC has the best general surgery group in the region.  

Our group within GBMC HealthPartners, goes by its historic name: Finney Trimble Surgical Associates, named after its founding members. The two most senior members of the group, Francis S. Rotolo, MD, FACS, division head of General Surgery at GBMC, and Laurence H. Ross, MD, are incredibly talented people who have been leaders in their field for more than 25 years. Other members of the practice include John L. Flowers, MD, who is also our healthcare system Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer and the leader of GBMC Health Partners; Joel A. Turner, MD, Chair of the Department of Surgery and Chief of Minimally Invasive Surgery; and Timothee J. Friesen, MD, FACS, bariatric and general surgeon and Medical Director of the GBMC Comprehensive Obesity Management Program. 

As we are celebrating Women in Medicine Month, I would also like to recognize Finney Trimble’s two fantastic female surgeons, Shauna M. Costinett, MD (left), and Emily J. Watters, MD (right), who joined the practice within the last two years. Both are board-certified general surgeons and members of our Comprehensive Obesity Management team. In a field historically dominated by men, Drs. Costinett and Watters have demonstrated their excellence since joining us, and we are delighted to have them on our team. I am also pleased to announce that a new member, Beatriz Briones, MD, a general surgeon who will practice general and bariatric surgery, will join the practice next month.  

Thank You…
On Monday, our Department of Ophthalmology hosted the 2022 Hoover/Naquin Symposium. We were honored to have Tamara Fountain, MD, delivering the Hoover Lecture, titled “Pilots and Physicians, Passengers and Patients – Maintaining Situational Awareness When Stakes Are High” and Megan E. Collins, MD, MPH, giving the Naquin Lecture, titled “Advancing Health Equity in Pediatric Eye Care.” We were pleased that Dr. Richard Hoover’s widow, Lydia, was able to be present for the lecture named in his honor. 

Dr. Fountain served as the President of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2021 and was named to the board of directors of the American Board of Ophthalmology in January 2022. She is a former President of the Illinois Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Collins is The Allan and Claire Jensen Professor of Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute and specializes in pediatric ophthalmology and adult strabismus. She is the Co-founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Consortium for School Based Health Solutions.

  (Standing left to right: Tamara Fountain, MD, Mary Louise
Collins, MD and Megan E. Collins, MD, MPH) 

I want to thank Drs. Fountain and Collins for participating in the lecture series and I also want to extend my appreciation to Mary Louise Collins, MD, Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at GBMC, and her staff for putting together such a wonderful event.

Having Some Fun in the Sun

On Wednesday, we held our annual Employee and Volunteer Appreciation BBQ. I look forward to this event every year because it gives us the opportunity to thank our fabulous people for all they do and for us to spend some time together.  

The people in our system are taking care of patients around the clock, and our team works hard. We organize this barbecue across all shifts and all sites, so that all our people have an opportunity to get a short break, have a meal, and enjoy some camaraderie while being outside. We cannot reach our vision without a fully engaged workforce and we cannot have a fully engaged workforce unless our people feel appreciated. The barbecue gives us some time to let them know we appreciate them. 

Our fourth Aim — More Joy — requires that we take time to celebrate, as a team, the wonderful care we provide. During our hectic workday, it is difficult to find time to bond and reflect on the joy of helping others. 

Fun was clearly on display as everyone enjoyed the music, good food, games, and festivities while having a relaxing time with friends and colleagues. We assembled again later that night to BBQ and play games with the night shift staff.

I also want to give a special thanks to our Human Resources team, led by Anna-Maria Palmer, and our Philanthropy and Marketing and Communications Teams, led by Jenny Coldiron, whose planning made the employee BBQ possible for all of us once again. 

Thank you…
This week is Environmental Services (EVS) & Housekeeping Week and I want to take time to recognize the contributions of our EVS staff. I have a deep appreciation for the role of environmental services in the overall healthcare delivery process and I want to thank all the of our environmental services staff who spend countless hours keeping our facilities clean and helping to prevent infections. Cleanliness is everyone’s job at GBMC, but, our EVS staff members are the experts in cleaning who work tirelessly to get the job done. There are more than 100 EVS associates working around the clock at GBMC in a variety of roles, servicing more than 1.2 million square feet of facility. So, please join me in honoring our EVS team.

Yesterday was Neonatal Nurses Day (part of Neonatal Nurses Week) across our nation. It’s a time where we honor our nursing colleagues and celebrate their hard work and dedication. NICU nurses work around the clock year-round to provide the best care to the tiniest, most vulnerable patients in the hospital. I want to thank them for helping premature and sick infants grow and thrive. With more than 4,500 babies born at GBMC annually, we are very fortunate to have such a high-level NICU to care for those babies who are born too small, too sick, or too soon.

Making Sure that Our Changes Stick

We have become adept at designing or redesigning processes in the GBMC HealthCare System. But how well are we doing at making sure that the changes we make are still around after the team that created them moves their focus to something else? 

On our Lean Management System walk this week, the Adult Emergency Department gave their monthly sustainability report. They have six processes that they check on in sustainability from redesign work since February 2020.

1. Patient Throughput
1. Provider In Triage (1 process)
1. Using evidence-based practice and national benchmarking, we reallocate provider resources, which has reduced the time patients spend waiting to see a physician or other provider. Since implementing this change, GBMC’s time to the first evaluation has stayed below the national average of 18 minutes.
2. Lab Turn Around Time (1 process)
1. Reducing the time from the order to the specimen collection to make the diagnosis faster. Our performance has been maintained from an order-to-collect median of 19 minutes. This reduction in wasted time has allowed the ED to implement and sustain an ED protocol bay and improves patient throughput.
3. PIVOT Nurse (1 process)
1. This process accelerates the complete and accurate data collection on patients and reduces the wait until the first medication pass for pain and comfort, prior to patients entering the waiting room.
4. Emergency Department (ED) to Inpatient (IP) Nursing Redesign (3 processes)
5. With collaboration from the Performance Improvement team, EPIC, and the Inpatient Nursing leaders, we were able to design an automated process for patient movement out of the ED. We have the patient ready to move when the bed is clean and the admission orders are in. We have sustained our improvement to move the patient within 10 minutes of the ready-to-move time.   

I am so grateful for our Performance Improvement Team that has designed a process for reporting on sustainability to help reduce the probability of drift back to “the old way.” And I am so proud of our ED team for sustaining so many redesigned processes!

Are You Ready for Some Football!?!?!?
Today, our Pediatric Emergency Department treats about 900 children a month and our talented and dedicated physicians, nurses, other clinicians, and support staff, make sure that each patient is provided the care that we would want for our own loved ones. We are very fortunate to have such a great Pediatric ED team. 

Now to help them continue their work and to make sure that they have the appropriate resources to continue providing stellar care for their patients, GBMC is participating in a special promotion for you to see the Baltimore Ravens in action. Former left tackle and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Jonathan Ogden, is helping us spread the word about our wonderful Pediatric ED and garnering financial support for it. 

Anyone who donates $8 (or more) will be entered for a chance to win two (2) club level season tickets and a parking pass for the Ravens 2022-2023 football season! Also, registrants will have a chance to win eight consolation prizes which are a pair of tickets to a Ravens home game.  You can help support this great cause by clicking here. Again, all proceeds will benefit our Pediatric ED.   

GBMC gets remarkable support from the community. I am sure that many will answer the call once again.  

Good luck to all participants and go Ravens!

Condolences for Queen Elizabeth II
We mourn the loss of Great Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen took over the crown in 1952, when Sir Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister, and her years included times of war, peace, scandal, and more. The Queen dedicated her life to public service, and throughout her long reign she was a passionate champion for her country. Our thoughts are with her family and all who loved her.