A Re-Imagined Space for GBMC Health Partners Owings Mills

On September 12, we held a ribbon cutting to commemorate the naming of the Sandra R. Berman Medical Office Building in Owings Mills, home to one of our GBMC Health Partners advanced primary care practices. Advanced primary care is a fundamental building block of the GBMC HealthCare System, and we are grateful that longtime supporters Sandra and Malcolm Berman understand the true difference we can make in people’s long-term health with this type of accountable primary care. 

Owings Mills facility; photo credit: CRGA Design

Their generous donation has allowed us to remodel our Owings Mills practice to more closely mirror our Family Care Associates practice, located in Physicians Pavilion North on GBMC’s main campus. The innovative design of these practices allows for a more patient-centered experience that is also more streamlined and efficient for the providers. 

For those who regularly read this blog, you’ll remember that with advanced primary care, we don’t focus on the number of visits; rather, we focus on building our relationships between patients and providers. Our goal with this renovation (and our primary care philosophy overall) is to make it as easy as possible to access this coordinated care, with weekend, holiday, and extended hours, on-site blood drawing, and 24/7 access to an online patient portal for prescription refills, test results, appointment requests, and more. 

I’m excited that we now have the updated amenities to care for patients even better and support our talented Owings Mills team of six family medicine physicians and a nurse practitioner. They are all steadfastly focused on preventive care and managing acute and chronic illness to avoid unnecessary emergency department visits and hospitalizations.  

Thank you again to Sandy and Malcolm for helping to ensure that we can continue to provide innovative, personalized, and attentive care to the Owings Mills community and beyond. I’d also like to thank Elie Miller, MD, family medicine physician with GBMC Health Partners, for his work in championing this improvement for our patients and care team. I'm also grateful for the work of Kevin Ferentz, MD, Chair of the Department of Family Medicine, and Nihkolle McGirt, Senior Ambulatory Practice Manager, and the entire team.  

If you’d like to become a GBMC Health Partners at Owings Mills patient or learn more, please click here. 

Honoring a Dedicated Physician 

It is with sadness that I share the news that Dr. Frank Sanzaro passed away on September 19. More than 40 years ago, Dr. Sanzaro started his own private medical practice, which later became GBMC at Hunt Manor. He was well-loved by his patients. His dedication and expertise as a family medicine physician was critical to the patient-centered medical home model that we developed in the various advanced primary care practices across our health system. We are grateful for his service to GBMC HealthCare, and our thoughts are with his family, friends, and loved ones during this time. 

Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) Week 

Please join me in recognizing our CDI professionals for their continued accomplishments of service by celebrating CDI Week, September 18 – 22. GBMC’s CDI Specialists ensure the medical record reflects a clear, accurate, and complete picture of the resources utilized for the care received and the complexity of the condition of the patient. 

Surgical Technologists Week 

September 17-23 is Surgical Technologists Week! Thank you to our surgical technologists for their hard work and for making the operating room efficient while ensuring patient safety.