Ken Kozel, president of University of Maryland Shore Regional Health, told Caroline County commissioners on Oct. 28 that the health system is preparing for big changes driven by state and federal policy, workforce shortages and the system’s own regional medical center project on Route 50.

Kozel said Shore Regional Health and the University of Maryland Medical System are closely following the AHEAD payment model now under negotiation between Maryland and the federal government; Maryland’s proposed application for part of a $50 billion federal rural health allocation is expected to be submitted “by next week,” he said. That federal allocation, split into baseline and competitive components, could be used locally for recruitment, retention and innovative community care models if the state’s application is approved.

The briefing included construction and local service details: the new regional medical center is under construction off Route 50, with visible columns and cranes now on site. Kozel said the new facility will be licensed for 147 beds — up from Shore Regional’s current 118 — with most of the net gain in observation and throughput beds to ease emergency department flow. Whiting Turner Mahogany was identified as the construction vendor; the system expects to open the facility in late 2028 and to need roughly 15–16 weeks after turnover to prepare the facility for patients.

Kozel and Laura Wilson, director of external affairs and community liaison, gave county figures that show the system’s Midshore footprint: roughly 2,000 square miles and about 172,000 residents in a five‑county primary service area. Kozel said roughly half of patients in the region are on Medicare or Medicaid, and he described the tight financial margins hospitals face nationally. Wilson provided operational numbers for the health system and the Denton campus: about 7,500 admissions across the system in the last fiscal year, roughly 71,000 emergency department visits, and 45,000 urgent care visits system‑wide; the Denton urgent care alone had about 15,700 visits last year.

Kozel and Wilson described multiple workforce and access initiatives. The University of Maryland School of Medicine has added 10 slots for rural scholars, increasing its class from 150 to 160 with tuition support for students who commit to rural practice. Shore Regional highlighted recruitment programs for physician assistants and nurse practitioners, telehealth expansion and a mobile integrated health (MIH) model to deliver transitional care and follow‑up services in people’s homes.

Kozel also said the system is preparing to sell its existing hospital building after the new facility opens; a national broker, CBRE, began distributing marketing materials Oct. 7 and Shore Regional expects to have a short list of bidders and a possible decision by the end of its fiscal year (June 30, 2026).

Why this matters: Shore Regional serves a widely dispersed, low‑density population with a high share of government payers. Kozel framed the system’s work — from the regional medical center to MIH and workforce programs — as an effort to protect local access to care while responding to payment and staffing pressures.

What commissioners asked and what remains unresolved: commissioners asked about telehealth use (Kozel said it increased during the pandemic, softened after COVID, and remains a targeted area for expansion), ambulance transport times to the new site (Kozel said the county EMS could do trial runs and the system would research estimated changes), and the system’s plan for the current hospital building (Kozel said it will be sold once services move to the new facility and that the UMMS board will select a buyer). Commissioners also pressed on long‑term sustainability of federal salary‑focused grants; Kozel warned those funds will be time‑limited and tied to performance metrics and said the system must build sustainable programs once grant dollars end.

Ending: Kozel and Wilson thanked the commissioners for local support and answered additional questions about behavioral health and child/adolescent inpatient options; Kozel said Shore Regional is exploring whether unused bed capacity in Chestertown could be repurposed for child and adolescent behavioral health services but that inpatient programs would require staffing, state approvals and could run at a negative margin for years.