On Friday morning, Maryland Secretary of Health Laura Herrera Scott, M.D., visited the MHA offices to speak with and hear directly from hospital leaders. Secretary Herrera Scott shared that during her first 30 days she has begun a deep dive into the available data and an assessment of staffing, partnerships, and processes. She praised hospitals for their role as “an incredible partner in the state’s care delivery system.”

Today MHA is launching a new MHA Managing Patient Bias and Requests for Provider Concordance and Reassignment Toolkit. Developed with Erika McMullen, founder and CEO of Moxie Consulting Group and Dr. Nicole Rochester, founder and CEO of Your GPS Doc, the toolkit will help your teams navigate patient requests for provider concordance and reassignment and support colleagues that are facing bias—based on race, sex, religion, age, and more—from their patients.

Maryland’s unique financing system, the Total Cost of Care Model, acted as a shock absorber to the early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, hospitals are not protected from events that have led to a “perfect storm” of financial challenges—record inflation for supplies, drugs, and equipment, as well as overwhelming labor costs. As a result, Maryland hospitals’ median operating margin was negative for 12 of the last 14 months. The latest monthly median margin was negative 1.4%. This compares to pre-pandemic margins of 2% to 3% on average.

Erin, a nurse at R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Erin and Pasha are lending their voices to MHA’s JoinMdHealth campaign—our field’s first statewide workforce recruitment campaign. The digital advertising launches February 6 and features your best spokespeople—your own awesome team members. This marketing push shines a light on the special opportunities for career development and personal fulfillment available in our hospitals and health systems.