2021 Report to the Community

Stories of our work in the community

Throughout Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region, MedStar Health works with communities to increase healthcare access and provide education. Our goal is to improve the health and well-being of all residents as we serve our patients, those who care for them, and our communities.

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  Bringing crucial medical care to South Baltimore’s most vulnerable communities.

  Terri Frederick, registrar for the MedStar Health Mobile Health Center, greets a patient.

  After many years with the same health insurance provider, Claudette Wilder, 65, discovered one day that the company had canceled her coverage without notice.

  “I didn’t know what to do or where to go to find a new doctor,” says the resident of Brooklyn Park, Maryland. “But then, almost like it was sent from heaven, I saw this van in my neighborhood.”

  The van is the MedStar Health Mobile Health Center. This medical center-on-wheels was launched in January 2021 with generous philanthropic partners, including the Baltimore Ravens, the France-Merrick Foundation, and Under Armour founder and executive chairman Kevin and his wife D.J. Plank.

  The MedStar Health Mobile Health Center provides quality care to underserved communities around MedStar Harbor Hospital in Baltimore. Community members can stop by the mobile center to receive various medical services, such as urgent care, primary care, wellness and OB/GYN exams, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and education, flu and tetanus shots, school-required athletic physicals, and referrals for substance- abuse treatment. It operates four days a week and makes eight stops throughout South Baltimore, including local schools and community recreation centers.

   

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  Increasing community access to crucial prevention programs

  Community member, Helen Rebman, participates in the diabetes prevention program at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital.

  At a routine appointment in 2019, Helen Rebman had a feeling her cardiologist would have bad news for her. Still, she had no idea how bad it would be.

  “He told me that if I didn’t get my cholesterol down, lose weight and start eating better, I was likely to have a heart attack or stroke within four years,” says the 67-year-old resident of Lexington Park, Maryland, who had struggled with obesity and high blood pressure for years. “I knew I had to do something to improve my quality of life.”

  Throughout the next few months, Helen took charge of her health and significantly lowered her cholesterol and blood pressure. She went from taking three medications a day to just one. And she lost weight—52 pounds, to be exact.

  Helen attributes her success in reaching her health goals to Simple Changes, a yearlong diabetes prevention program (DPP) offered at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital.

  “It saved my life,” she says.

  Thanks to a grant recently awarded to MedStar Health and other area hospitals, more lives may be saved.

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  House calls: promoting early screening for lung cancer.

  Pictured above are Ziv Gamliel, MD, chief of Thoracic Surgery at The Angelos Center for Lung Diseases at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center and Kelly Swoope, news anchor at WMAR, answering calls from viewers about smoking and lung health during Lung Cancer Awareness month.

  Mark Johnson has been a smoker for his adult life. The 56-year-old real estate agent and Baltimore native has tried to kick the habit countless times over the years but has admittedly struggled.

  “I’ve tried to quit at least 30 or 40 times,” he says, adding that the longest he has gone without smoking was two and a half months. He says he has tried everything from hypnosis to chewing gum to prescription medications to quit cigarettes. “The only thing I haven’t tried is acupuncture.”

  Johnson, who started smoking when he was 19, said that even though his father’s death in 2005 due to lung cancer was a wake-up call for him to stop smoking, it still has been an ongoing challenge to give up his pack-a-day habit for good.

  “I don’t want a doctor to tell me one day that I waited too late,” says Johnson. “I know I need to do something now.”

  To help reach more community members like Johnson, MedStar Health began conducting “house calls,” a series of appearances on a local television news station where MedStar Health physicians and nurse practitioners answer calls from viewers about smoking and lung health.

  Lung House Calls appeared on Baltimore-based WMAR-TV over two nights in November 2020 for Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Six MedStar Health physicians and nurse practitioners answered nearly 200 calls throughout each two-hour segment.

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  Expanding much-needed urgent care services to communities in Maryland.

  Pictured above is Jasmeet Singh Bhogal, MD, MBA, Regional Medical Director, MedStar Health Urgent Care at one of MedStar Health’s new urgent care centers.

  Whether it’s a toddler’s ear infection, an athlete’s twisted ankle or a family’s need for COVID-19 testing and vaccines, urgent care centers fulfill an essential need in our communities, especially now. MedStar Health is taking significant steps to expand and provide even more of these services and resources to areas throughout the region.

  In December 2020, MedStar Health announced the acquisition of Righttime Medical Care, a local provider of urgent care for more than 30 years. The acquisition adds 19 urgent care centers to the MedStar Health network, doubling its number of centers to 33 throughout Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region.

  “This helps us expand our footprint to reach more communities,” says Elizabeth Delasobera, MD, medical director of MedStar Health Urgent Care. “We can now help thousands more patients across the state of Maryland to get coordinated treatment and follow-up care.”

  MedStar Health Urgent Care already had widespread reach in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The acquisition of Righttime gives the system reach into more areas in Maryland, specifically Western Maryland, counties along the I-270 corridor, and Anne Arundel County.

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  Spreading awareness about sun safety through National Safe Sun Week.

  Community members apply sunscreen to protect their skin from harmful ultra-violet rays.

  Bridgett Barefoot-Welch grew up in the sun. The Hawaii native, now a Maryland resident, spent her childhood and teenage years in a tropical climate where temperatures remain above 80 degrees almost all year.

  “Growing up, we didn’t think twice about sunscreen or doing anything else to protect ourselves from the sun,” says the 52-year-old registered nurse. “But as I got older, I realized that I needed to start taking more actions to protect my skin.”

  Those actions include applying and reapplying sunscreen when she is outdoors, wearing face moisturizer with built-in sun protection factor (SPF) 15 or higher and practicing these steps even when it is not a particularly sunny day.

  To encourage more community members like Barefoot-Welch to enjoy their time outdoors safely, MedStar Health launched National Safe Sun Week. Medstar Health associates educate residents and visitors about ways to protect against the sun’s harmful ultra-violet (UV) rays, remind them to get their annual skin-check, and provide warning signs and advice on avoiding dehydration and heatstroke. This weeklong awareness campaign occurs annually the week before Memorial Day, the official kickoff to summer.

  “We found that there are real gaps in what people know and what they’re doing to protect their skin,” says Claire Hunter, senior director of Brand Marketing, MedStar Health.

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  Providing real-time, 24/7 crisis-response services for mental health emergencies.

  Pictured above is Crystal Watkins, MD, chair of psychiatry and behavioral health at MedStar Harbor Hospital.

  John is a savvy business owner and employer. He’s highly educated. He has a close-knit and supportive family. And he suffers from bipolar disorder.

  Although he has run a successful company for decades, there have been times when John’s mental illness caused major problems for himself and his family. During one particular episode, John came face to face with six police officers on his front lawn, all with their guns drawn.

  “He had stopped taking his medications and started acting erratically and threatening his sister,” says Crystal Watkins, MD, chair of psychiatry and behavioral health at MedStar Harbor Hospital. “And unfortunately, his family had no recourse but to call 911 so he could get the help he needed. But they wanted him to get treated, not get arrested.”

  MedStar Health seeks to reduce encounters like this by partnering with the Greater Baltimore Regional Integrated Crisis System (GBRICS). As part of a five-year plan, the mission is three-fold; to create a mental health crisis hotline; to provide 24-hour access to mobile crisis response teams, and; to give those experiencing a mental health crisis same-day treatment.

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  Helping the Washington-area NBA and NHL teams resume play safely during the pandemic.

  Pictured above are fans cheering at a basketball game.

  Starting March 11, 2020, all professional sports leagues in the U.S. began suspending their seasons “until further notice.” For some leagues, the COVID-19 pandemic halted games right in the middle of playoffs. For others, their seasons were just starting. But as the world began to get a clearer picture of the new restrictions and protocols we would all have to follow for the foreseeable future, professional sports organizations began looking for a way to resume play. And they needed the help of experienced medical professionals to accomplish the task safely.

  Bryan Murtaugh, MD, and Elizabeth Delasobera, MD, of MedStar Health, serve as team physicians for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Washington Wizards and the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Washington Capitals. Each gave their respective teams the medical guidance, support, and care needed to resume team workouts, practices, and games safely.

  This meant joining the “bubble.”

  The idea of creating an isolation zone or “bubble” for players, trainers, coaches, staff, and medical personnel began a few weeks after play was suspended in March. By May 2020, the NBA's executives brought MedStar Health into discussions with medical staff from around the league and the Wizards organization. Pulling off such a feat involved a high level of care coordination, numerous meetings, consultations with MedStar Health infectious disease specialists, and discussions of policies and procedures with the entire medical staff.

  “There was no playbook for what we were doing,” says Dr. Murtaugh. “Figuring out how to get things done was incredibly challenging.”

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  A connected approach to addressing social needs.

  Victor Paz, community health advocate, MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, recognizes the value of the social needs tool.

  MedStar Health takes a holistic approach to health care. During intake for medical conditions, associates also conduct screenings for issues of social need.

  A series of questions are asked to determine whether outlying social concerns are impacting a patient’s health. Questions like, “Have you been unable to pay your rent? Is it often hard to afford food? Are your utilities in danger of being shut off? Has it been hard finding and keeping a job?”

  Now, with the integration of a proven and effective social needs software, the answers to these questions are part of each patient’s electronic medical record, making it easier for providers to connect them with the resources necessary to fill these critical needs.

  FindHelp, formerly Aunt Bertha, is an online tool used to connect patients with free or low-cost services in their community. MedStar Health began its partnership with Aunt Bertha in 2016 with the launch of MedStar Health Social Needs. This publicly accessible tool allows community members to search for various services for themselves or on behalf of neighbors, friends, or family members.

  Meal delivery, ride-share programs, rent, and utility assistance are just a few of the search options available by zip code.

  “The pandemic caused even more demand for resources like this,” says Raquel Lamptey, MedStar Health community health system manager. “There were patients who had lost their jobs, needed money for food and couldn’t pay rent—and we know that stressors like this impact overall health. We knew we had to find an even more streamlined way to connect them to help fast.”

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