TidalHealth Peninsula Regional requests funding for trauma center

While the hospital’s emergency room visits decreased during the pandemic, falling from over 90,000 annually in fiscal year 2019 to just over 70,000 in fiscal year 2021, trauma visits have increased by 3.9% over the last five years, according to TidalHealth President and CEO Steven Leonard. In fiscal year 2022, the hospital saw over 1,600 trauma visits.

Patients at the hospital’s trauma center primarily come from the Delmarva peninsula, though some come from across the bridge in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region and from western Maryland. Ocean City, the Shore’s most popular beach destination, can see over 300,000 visitors on its busiest weekends, further necessitating the need for a robust emergency room and trauma center.

Additionally, the hospital is the regional referral center on the Shore, with over 800 inpatient transfers from smaller hospitals across the area, including UM Shore Medical Center at Easton. Transfers come to Salisbury for several reasons, including trauma services, specialized care and lack of capacity or capability at other facilities.

However, the hospital lost $50 million from operations last year, Leonard said. This year, it’s projected to lose $30 million to $40 million. It costs the hospital about $22 million to provide the level of services available in its trauma center, and the state gives the facility about $2 million to $3 million through the Maryland Trauma Physician Services Fund.

The fund provides payments to offset costs of uncompensated and undercompensated medical care provided by trauma doctors at the state’s designated trauma centers, stipends to offset trauma centers’ on-call and standby expenses and grant funding for certain equipment. The fund is financed by a $5 surcharge on car registrations.

“When I say our trauma center is in jeopardy, I mean it is in absolute jeopardy at this point in time,” he said. “We will have to look at, without funding or support, can we continue to do this, can we continue to be that center?”

Leonard said that since 2017, the hospital system has been talking with the Health Services Cost Review Commission, the state’s hospital rate-setting authority. The system submitted a full rate application that Leonard said was unsuccessful in obtaining appropriate funding for trauma care.

Following the hospital’s last full rate application, the HSCRC recommended that TidalHealth seek legislative support, prompting Leonard to approach Eastern Shore lawmakers.

In his presentation, Leonard requested temporary funding of $17 million each year for the next two fiscal years to keep TidalHealth’s trauma center afloat while working to establish a long-term plan for trauma care in Maryland. The hospital system needs to know if they have the legislative funding support by the end of the General Assembly session in April, or they’ll need to think about scenarios that don’t include the current level of care, he said.

Leonard also requested that lawmakers put forth a bill to establish a commission to study trauma care in Maryland.

“Ultimately, I think it’s important to talk about where this funding comes from, not just for our hospital, but even western Maryland, Meritus, and even in the city of Baltimore it’s hard funding trauma, so we really need to study that within the state of Maryland,” he said.

TidalHealth is also continuing to work with the HSCRC to modernize funding mechanisms across the state for trauma care, Leonard added.

The requested bill is currently being drafted, said Del. Tom Hutchinson, R-37B, who serves on the House of Delegates’ Health and Government Operations committee.