Ready to Roll: Chester River Health Foundation Funds Dedicated Ambulance for Transport of Patients Across the Eastern Shore

Pilot Project Aims to Reduce Travel Wait Time for Non-Critical Patients at University of Maryland Shore Regional Health Hospitals

CHESTERTOWN, MD

With the beautiful rural counties that make up Maryland’s Eastern Shore comes an inherent challenge – how to transport patients needing medical care in a timely fashion. Often, trips between University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH) facilities can take several hours. Faced with this challenge, the University of Maryland Chester River Health Foundation (UM CRHF) worked on a solution with UM SRH’s parent organization, the University of Maryland Medical System.

UM CRHF, which supports patient care programs at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown (a UM SRH hospital), recently agreed to provide $372,00 to fund a pilot program that provides a dedicated ambulance for the transfer of non-critical patients between hospitals, emergency centers and tertiary care (rehab and skilled nursing) facilities on the Eastern Shore. The pilot involves a dedicated ambulance from Butler Medical Transport, stationed at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown.

“The ambulance completed its first transport within two hours of being put into service on May 1, from the Chestertown hospital to a nursing home with a patient who has been discharged from the Emergency Department,” said Dylan Seese, Senior Operations Manager for Butler. “During the first month of service, the ambulance made 144 trips (20% more than anticipated) and traveled 5,000 miles (over 700 miles more than expected).

More than 1,000 Kent County patients require transfer each year, with an average round-trip time between three and four hours. “About 70% of the transfers involve the need for a higher level of care or a specialty service not offered in our Chestertown hospital,” said Sandy Prochaska, MSN, RN, Acute Care & Emergency Services Nurse Manager in Chestertown. “We also transfer patients from other UM SRH facilities to Chestertown for inpatient care.’

“In the past, the wait for ambulance transport has made it difficult to ensure timely patient discharges and prompt admission of new patients coming from our emergency departments,” said LuAnn Brady, UM SRH Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. “The new ambulance service based in Chestertown serves patients who need timely transport to a tertiary care facility or to another hospital for specialized care, and also those who are ready to be discharged but transportation is an issue. The first month of service saw the average wait-time for ambulance transfer reduced from around six hours to within the hour.”

“I cannot think of a more effective or important way for the Chester River Health Foundation to use the funds entrusted to us for the benefit of the people we serve, as well as for our clinical staff, than to support this essential patient care project,” said Libby Woolever, Chair of the UM CRHF board.

“Staffed around the clock seven days a week, this new transportation resource is not just a service but a significant contributor to improving patient care. It has led to significantly shorter wait times for discharge and transfer from UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown and also allows for shorter wait times for those patients coming to Chestertown from other Shore Regional Health facilities,” said Ken Kozel, President and CEO, UM SRH. “We are very grateful to the board of the Chester River Health Foundation for their generous and timely support for this pilot project and for their ongoing interest in advancing health care programs and services that benefit our patients and clinical care teams around the region, underscoring the value and significance of this initiative.

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