After more than a decade with UM Shore Regional Health (UM SRH), William Huffner, MD, MBA, FACEP, FACHE, who served during this time as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs, retired at the end of June. Dr. Huffner’s time with UM SRH was marked by many changes for the hospital system, including the integration of two hospitals and medical staffs, growing the provider network now known as University of Maryland Shore Medical Group, and opening two medical pavilions and a freestanding emergency center. In 2020, he led the health care network through the COVID-19 pandemic as regional incident commander.

“For the past decade, Dr. Huffner has been a tremendous asset to the advancement of health care on Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” said Ken Kozel, MBA, FACHE, President and CEO, UM SRH. “In 2013, Shore Health integrated with Chester River Health, which subsequently created one medical staff with one set of bylaws and one physician leadership structure for the region, Dr. Huffner helped lead the transformation to one system of care for our community. We will miss his leadership and sense of humor, and on behalf of the Board and everyone at Shore Regional Health, we are grateful for his significant contributions to our community and wish him the very best in his well-deserved retirement.”

Before coming to UM SRH in 2013, Dr. Huffner served in multiple roles at Arnot Health Inc., in Elmira, New York, ultimately serving as Chief Medical Officer for the Arnot Health system, as well as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs at two of its hospitals. Prior to that position, he was chair and medical director for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Arnot Ogden Medical Center, and medical director for paramedic training, ambulance service and hazmat teams.

“I came to UM Shore Regional Health because it was a great opportunity to do what I had done in upstate New York, which was to create a single hospital system out of three separate hospitals. Shore Regional Health became a system within the System — University of Maryland Medical System. At the same time, Shore Regional Health has continued to put the needs of our patients first,” Dr. Huffner said.

Dr. Huffner’s emergency medicine experience also gave him unique insight into the needs of patients and their care teams in the multiple departments and health care services patients experience during illness and recovery. His time at UM SRH was marked by several significant collaborations, including residency programs for physicians and physician’s assistants.

“As an emergency medicine physician and medical director of an EMS system and ambulances in upstate New York, I fully recognize the importance of EMS professionals, both paid and volunteer, who can optimize the care to patients even before they come to the hospital,” Dr. Huffner said. “Respect for our pre-hospital care providers is a critically important part of the care across the continuum. “It’s critically important for us to work collaboratively, as a team — and by team, I include community-based providers who create wellness through better care. Each of us has expertise, whether it’s home-based care, preventive care or post-acute care. That’s why we collaborate with community-based providers — skilled nursing facilities, behavioral health providers, EMS providers, case managers and the medical staff, physicians, primary providers and specialists.”

Timothy Shanahan, DO, Medical Director, UM Shore Medical Group, added, “Dr. Huffner has been a mentor, friend and trusted leader. His interest has always been in putting the patient first. His leadership has played an integral role in bringing Shore Regional Health’s vision of a new state-of-the-art hospital to the Eastern Shore. In that same vein, he has helped successfully lay the framework for bringing medical residents to the Eastern Shore.”

On the Eastern Shore, Dr. Huffner championed the University of Maryland Medical System’s focus on patient safety along with improved patient outcomes and team member experience.

“UMMS and Shore Regional Health have adopted evidenced-based best care practices and the concept of safety — these are the first and foremost priorities in patient care,” Dr. Huffner said. “Integrating the importance of safety and good outcomes, every day, all the way up to management and Board responsibilities for these processes, we recognize that it is critically important to provide the focus but also the resources needed for these priorities.”

As the UM SRH Incident Commander during COVID-19, Dr. Huffner coordinated pandemic response efforts.

“Managing through COVID was successful because we are part of UMMS, which developed a comprehensive incident command system (ICS) in which all the hospitals participated — each hospital established its own incident command to address the needs and the ever-changing situation of COVID during the pandemic,” Dr. Huffner said. “The success of ICS during COVID-19 really showed our team members that it is an effective tool in dealing with emergent situations.”

Dr. Huffner said he believes in the hospital system’s vision and its future prospects.

“The future for Shore Regional Health is bright,” Dr. Huffner said. “The prospect of the new regional medical center is exciting, and we have processes and people —frontline team members, nurses, advanced practice providers, doctors, management and the Board — focused on the importance of highest quality care. That focus moves us to ensure that we accomplish high quality care and great outcomes for both our patients and our team members.”

In retirement, Dr. Huffner is spending time with his wife, Rosemary, his four adult children and six grandchildren. He continues to sit on the boards for the Caroline County Adult Public Guardianship Review Board and the Benedictine School.

“I really want to express my gratitude to everyone at UM SRH — the Board, Ken, and all the team members that I enjoyed working with — a real sincere thank you to all of those people who made my time here possible and enjoyable.”

About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health

A member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH) is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of five counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore: Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot. UM SRH consists of approximately 2,000 team members, including more than 600 health care providers on the Medical Staff, who work with community partners to advance the values that are foundational to our mission: Compassion, Discovery, Excellence, Diversity and Integrity. For more information, visit https://www.umms.org/shore.

About the University of Maryland Medical System

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as