Message from Dr. Suntha: UMMS COVID-19 Preparations
UMMS Colleagues:
As our country takes precautions against COVID-19, I wanted to share with you the proactive leadership position we are taking in not only the state and region but also across the nation to protect and care for our patients, employees, visitors, physicians, partner organizations and our communities. We, as the University of Maryland Medical System and the School of Medicine (SOM), are on the front lines with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and are in active conversations daily discussing protocols to provide the best care possible to people across the nation. The experts within our faculty and research teams at SOM are being asked to weigh in on the national response and are at the forefront of vaccine and testing development.
Closer to home, we are well into our planning efforts across our System. For the first time, we have activated a system-wide Incident Command Structure to coordinate our readiness and response efforts led by Dr. David Marcozzi. Dr. Marcozzi is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Population Health within the Department of Emergency Medicine at SOM. He also serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, SOM, the Assistant Chief Medical Officer for Acute Care at the University of Maryland Medical Center and is the Deputy Medical Director for Mobile Integrated Healthcare for the Baltimore City Fire Department.
Prior to these roles, Dr. Marcozzi served in the federal government as a senior leader and subject matter expert on health delivery, emergency care, and emergency preparedness. A Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, Dr. Marcozzi has been mobilized four times since 2001 and is now assigned to the United States Special Operations Command.
Dr. Marcozzi and team are focusing on six key priorities:
- Protection – Our top focus is on keeping our staff and patients safe. We will do everything we can to prevent transmission of COVID-19 to patients, employees, medical staff, visitors and others.
- Recognition – Develop and use screening tools to assess patients coming to our clinics and emergency rooms quickly and accurately.
- Confirmation and Evaluation – Have processes in place to accurately evaluate and confirm those infected by COVID-19.
- Treatment – We need to maintain the capability and capacity to provide the best patient care possible for COVID-19 patients across UMMS.
- Communication – Update staff regularly with the latest information via emails, meetings, our intranet and other communication channels.
- Planning – Anticipate potential challenges that lie ahead, and make sure we have the resources and supplies we need to provide the expert and compassionate care we are known for.
This is a rapidly evolving situation, so updates will be frequent. I encourage you to stay connected to your organization’s communications resources for daily updates. This may include your local intranet page, emails, newsletters or signage. In the coming days, we are launching an UMMS Insider Intranet page dedicated to tracking developments with COVID-19. That will be a central repository housing all important information you will need as this continues.
As always, thank you for putting our patients and communities first and for your commitment and support to each other. I talk often about UMMS being a national thought leader in the health care conversation, and it is situations like this that demonstrate our expertise.
Sincerely,
Mohan Suntha, MD, MBA
President and Chief Executive Officer
University of Maryland Medical System
The Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Professor of Radiation Oncology
University of Maryland School of Medicine