University of Maryland Medical System Celebrates 40 Years of World-Class Patient Care

Forty years ago, a new way to imagine health care in Maryland was born, when visionary leaders saw the future potential of what was then a single state-owned and state-funded hospital in downtown Baltimore that was facing financial challenges. Fast forward to today, and the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is a thriving network reaching urban, suburban and rural communities across the state, providing 25 percent of all hospital-based care in Maryland.

“The history of the University of Maryland Medical System is a story that is focused on an incredible journey that demonstrates the power of leadership, the power of partnership and the success of privatization,” said Mohan Suntha, MD, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer of UMMS. “We are profoundly grateful for those who came before us and set the foundation upon which our future is built.”

In 1823, faculty of the University of Maryland College of Medicine (now known as the University of Maryland School of Medicine - UMSOM) formed the Baltimore Infirmary, which sat near the intersection of South Greene and Lombard streets in downtown Baltimore, and was the first teaching hospital associated with a degree-granting medical school and the original residency program in medical education. This later became the University of Maryland Hospital, commonly known as “University Hospital,” located on South Greene Street, which operated as a state institution for more than 160 years. In the early 1980s, University of Maryland Hospital was losing several million dollars annually when a group of hospital leaders had the foresight to approach the state to privatize the hospital, and the University of Maryland Medical System Corporation – albeit a network of a single hospital - was created in state legislation in 1984 under then-Governor Harry Hughes as a private, nonprofit corporation.

“Quite simply, this set the stage for giving Marylanders more options for quality, academic health care. We had a vision for high quality health care and also being an independent enterprise,” said Mort Rapoport, MD, an UMSOM graduate who served his medical residency at University Hospital and worked as a physician and leader at the hospital for nearly 20 years prior to becoming the first president and chief executive officer for UMMS. At that time, approximately half the physicians practicing in the state had trained at UMSOM, and organizers of this new medical “system” were eager to build on the relationship between UMSOM and the downtown hospital. “I’m most proud of the process of privatization when a lot of folks didn’t think it would work,” Dr. Rapoport added.

“It was a unique public-private arrangement that ultimately allowed us to leverage resources of the state and allowed us to become more entrepreneurial and be competitive,” said John Ashworth, a longtime Maryland health care executive who held many leadership positions across the University of Maryland Medical Center, UMMS and UMSOM. 

Known today as the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), the System’s original hospital stands as UMMS’ flagship facility and remains one of the nation's oldest teaching hospitals. UMMC today is a major regional referral center for trauma, cancer care, neurosciences, cardiac care and heart surgery, women's and children's health and organ transplants. Over the last 200 years, UMMC has pioneered innovations and first-of-its-kind advancements including the first successful transplant of a porcine heart into an adult human with end-stage heart disease (xenotransplantation, in 2022) and the first hospital in the world to use a drone/unmanned aircraft to carry an organ for transplantation (2019). (A list of other innovations and first-of-its-kind advancements at UMMC is posted here).

“Undoubtedly the face of health care in Maryland was forever transformed for the better when the legislation creating UMMS was signed,” said Dr. Suntha, who has served as president and chief executive officer for the System since November 2019. Prior, Dr. Suntha served as president and chief executive officer of UMMC and in the same role at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center from 2012 to 2016. Dr. Suntha has spent his entire career with UMMS and UMSOM, training as a resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology in 1991 before joining the faculty in 1995 and embarking on a career treating cancer patients.

A brief video, “The First 40 Years of the University of Maryland Medical System” featuring comments from several UMMS and UMMC leaders, as well as historical photos, is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBjaXBXFqQI.

Timeline of Key Moments in the History of UMMS:

1984: The Maryland General Assembly establishes the University of Maryland Medical System as a private nonprofit company

1986: The System acquires James Lawrence Kernan Hospital, it would later be renamed UM Rehabilitation & Orthopaedic Institute

1989: The eight-story, 72-bed R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center opens, named for pioneering director R Adams Cowley, who opened the center in 1960

1993: The University of Maryland Cancer Center opens. It would later be renamed the UM Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, after a $10 million gift from Marlene and Stuart Greenebaum

1999: Maryland General Hospital joins the UMMS, it was later renamed University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus

2000: North Arundel Hospital joins the UMMS, it was later renamed UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center

2006: UMMS and Johns Hopkins Medicine acquired Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, which provides long-term care to children dealing with complex medical problems. Today MWPH is co-owned by both organizations

2006: UMMS acquires Shore Regional Health, now known as UM Shore Regional Health, and its hospitals – the now-defunct Dorchester General Hospital in Cambridge (later called UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester) and Memorial Hospital in Easton (now UM Shore Medical Center at Easton)

2008: UMMS merges with Chester River Health System, since rebranded UM Shore Regional Health

2009: UMMS reaches an operating agreement to run Civista Medical Center in La Plata

2011: Upper Chesapeake Health joins the University of Maryland Medical System

2011: Civista Medical Center joins UMMS, it would later be renamed UM Charles Regional Medical Center

2012: UMMS acquired the assets of St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, and renamed it UM St. Joseph Medical Center. It remains the System’s only Catholic hospital 

2015: UM St. Joseph Medical Center, UM Shore Regional Health and UM Upper Chesapeake Regional Health take over the operations of nine ChoiceOne Urgent Care sites under a joint venture agreement

2017: UMMS acquires Dimensions Healthcare System as an affiliate within UMMS, becoming UM Capital Region Health

2020: UMMS acquires the nine ChoiceOne UrgentCare sites, rebranding them as UM Urgent Care

2021: UM Capital Region Medical Center in Largo opens, replacing UM Prince George’s Hospital Center

2023: The University of Maryland Medical Center celebrated its bicentennial

2024: UMMS celebrates its 40^th Anniversary

Today, UMMS has nearly $5 billion in annual revenues and more than 28,000 team members, and offers care in more than 150 locations, including 10 hospitals, five standalone emergency departments and a network of urgent care centers.

“As our System looks forward, we are purposeful in our mission as an anchor institution in all the communities where we are privileged to serve to continue evolving and improving as an integrated health system creating access to academic medicine for all Marylanders,” Dr. Suntha said. “We also believe we are a national model of success, not just for privatization but for our unique partnership between public and private institutions. This collaboration has allowed us to deliver exceptional care over a wider footprint and advance medical research, setting new standards in the industry.”

R. Alan Butler, chair of the UMMS Board of Directors, said, “When you think about who we are as a health system, we are everything from academic health care in urban-based environments like the city of Baltimore and Prince George’s County, to a rural health care provider on the Mid-Shore; to delivering health care in suburban counties like Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Charles and Harford. We pride ourselves on innovation; today’s medical discoveries and research lead tomorrow’s clinical care at the bedside. While we are delivering the care of today, we take on the responsibility of educating the future health care workforce. We do this through partnership, and so when I look around today, I am incredibly excited about the partners that sit together.”

“We wake up every day thinking about the health and well-being of Marylanders,” Dr. Suntha added. “By doing so, we have a disproportionate impact not only on our state but also on the nation and the world. We are a better state of care today and into the future.”

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 well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.