Shore Health facilities in the Eastern Shore region will have better access to specialty health services in Baltimore following a merger next month with the University of Maryland Medical System, observers say.
The business of medicine won?t change much as the university expands, said Robert Murray, director of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, because hospitals generally maintain their own operating budgets. However, the deal could also bring more investment money across the Bay.
“Stand-alone hospitals on the Eastern Shore tend not to be bond-rated,” Murray said.
Usually they don?t have the same access to credit and investment capital as a large system like the University of Maryland?s.
The merger of the University of Maryland Medical System and Shore Health, set to take effect July 1, has already been approved by Shore Health?s board of directors. No layoffs are planned, and the merger will expand the University of Maryland?s work force by more than 6 percent.
“This merger will bring our services to a new part of Maryland,” said Edmond F. Notebaert, president of UMMS.
The deal will also “improve access to services for the most serious and complex medical conditions and create expanded opportunities for clinical research and teaching.”
Shore Health?s main facilities include Dorchester General Hospital in Cambridge and the Memorial Hospital at Easton, which have served their communities for about a century. They house 187 acute-care beds, a 33-bed skilled nursing facility. The system also includes a complete range of outpatient diagnostic and treatment facilities throughout Caroline, Talbot, Dorchester, Kent and Queen Anne?s counties.
Shore Health System offers regional centers for cancer treatment, joint replacement, birthing, sleep disorders and other specialty services. More than 1,700 employees and 200 doctors serve Shore Health, which has annual revenues of more than $172 million.
“While Shore Health System is already the [mid] shore?s leading health care provider, combining with UMMS will over time make it even easier for residents to access specialized health care services they need without crossing the Bay Bridge,” said John W. Dillon, chair of Shore Health System?s board of directors.
The University of Maryland Medical System is a six-hospital system with academic, community and specialty services reaching every part of Maryland. The medical system employs 11,000.
