Dr. William Huffner Retires from UM Shore Regional Health After More Than 10 Years of Service

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. His 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, opening two medical pavilions and a freestanding emergency center, and leading the health care network through one of the most challenging times in a century, the COVID-19 pandemic.

“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 Shore Regional Health. “Since 2013, when UM Shore Regional Health integrated with Chester River Health, and the subsequent creation of 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. In 2020, Dr. Huffner played a key role in UM Shore Regional Health’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as our regional Incident Commander. His leadership and insight were invaluable to our ability to persevere during that challenging time. We will miss Dr. Huffner’s leadership and sense of humor, and on behalf of the Board and everyone at UM 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 then newly formed Arnot Health system, as well as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs at two of its hospitals, Arnot Ogden Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital. Prior to that position, he was chair and medical director for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Arnot Ogden Medical Center and served as medical director for paramedic training, ambulance service and hazmat teams. Dr. Huffner is also a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

“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. And that’s what Shore Regional Health did. Shore Regional Health became a system within the System — University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) — but at the same time, Shore Regional Health has remained very patient-centered and continued to put the needs of our patients first,” Dr. Huffner said. “I also wanted to be closer to my now-adult children, who live in the Mid-Atlantic region.”

Dr. Huffner’s experience with emergency medicine also gave him unique insight into the needs of patients and their care teams, and throughout 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.
He also encouraged greater recognition of the importance of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) professionals in health care, overall.

“As an emergency medicine physician, where I was a 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.”

When discussing partnerships and collaborations in health care, Dr. Huffner believes it is important to consider the success of these partnerships in relation to the continuum of care and across the multiple disciplines.

“It’s critically important for us to work collaboratively, as a team — and by team, I’m including all our community-based providers from multiple disciplines who engage in a way to create wellness through better care — recognizing that each of us has expertise in our own area, whether it’s home-based care, preventive care or post-acute care,” he said. “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 — who can maximize the care and improve outcomes for our patients and our communities.”

Peyman Otmishi, MD, FCCP, Chief of the Medical Staff at UM Shore Regional Health, said he appreciates the support and collaboration with Dr. Huffner over the past decade.

“I hold a tremendous amount of respect for Dr. Huffner, who has supported and guided me in various leadership roles over the past decade,” Dr. Otmishi said. “He truly is an inspiration to many in this institution. Even in his retirement, I know that I can count on him when I need his wisdom, in any situation that would be challenging to solve. I hold him dearly close to my heart and will certainly miss his clever antics and, especially, his open-door policy — even if it was actually closed.”

Timothy Shanahan, DO, Medical Director, UM Shore Medical Group, echoed these sentiments, saying, “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. He also recognized, without providers and support staff, a hospital is just an empty building. 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 helped to champion the University of Maryland Medical System’s focus on better patient outcomes, patient safety and better team member experience. These will continue to be priorities in UM Shore Regional Health’s commitment to providing patient-centered, high-quality care.

“UMMS as a system, and Shore Regional Health as an extension of that System, have adopted evidenced-based best care and the concept of safety — these are the first and foremost priorities as we provide care to our patients,” 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 to ensure patient safety along with excellent patient and team member experience. This is how we bring high quality and high value care to our patients and the communities we serve.”

As the UM SRH Incident Commander during COVID-19, Dr. Huffner was responsible for coordinating pandemic response efforts and addressing any challenges that arose between departments at UM SRH.

“Managing through COVID was as successful as it was for UM SRH 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. “Being able to assemble a team to work collaboratively, using evidence-based best practices that evolved over time, enabled us to decrease or mitigate the impact of that horrible disease. The success of ICS during COVID-19 really showed our team members that it is an effective tool in dealing with emergent situations, and that participation and contributions by the individual team members in the incident command are the keys to success.”

When thinking about the future of UM SRH, and a new regional medical center, scheduled to open in 2028, Dr. Huffner said he believes in the hospital system’s vision.

“First and foremost, the future for Shore Regional Health is bright,” Dr. Huffner said. “We’ve seen that there are processes and people — whether it’s frontline team members, nurses, advanced practice providers, doctors, management or the Board — who are adopting and focusing on the importance of highest quality care. And that focus helps move us, as a system, and as a team, to ensure that we accomplish high quality care and great outcomes for both our patients and our team members. The prospect of a new regional medical center is exciting.”

In retirement, Dr. Huffner hopes to spend more time with family: His wife, Rosemary; his four children, Matt, Tom, Michael and Stephanie; and his six grandchildren, who are between 8 months and 7-years-old. He also will continue to sit on the boards for the Caroline County Adult Public Guardianship Review Board and the Benedictine School.
He said he will miss working with his colleagues, though.

“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.”