An emergency-room physicians group at Anne Arundel Medical Center will donate $1 million toward a new emergency department that is being built as part of a larger expansion at AAMC, the hospital has announced.
The donation by Doctor's Emergency Services, a group of 25 physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants that provides health care to emergency-room patients at the hospital, is particularly noteworthy because it comes during a time of "nervous uncertainly about personal income" for those in the medical field, according to Lisa Hillman, executive director of the AAMC Foundation and chair for the national Association for Health Care Philanthropy.
"Doctors are getting paid much less today, and the projections are that they're going to be paid much less in the future," she said. "Insurance is cutting back - Medicare, Medicaid - and income is still the same. For them to still support the hospital ... we're very, very grateful."
She added that the contribution, which will be made over the next few years, is coming from a group that contains several younger doctors, many in their 30s and 40s.
"That's very young in the philanthropic world," she said.
Doctor's Emergency Services makes yearly donations to the hospital, but in recent years the group has not exceeded $30,000 in a single year, according to Dr. Kenneth Gummerson, president of Doctor's Emergency Services and chief of AAMC's emergency department.
Gummerson said challenges facing doctors nationwide are particularly glaring in this area of the country. Malpractice costs, along with the cost of living, are among the highest in the country, while reimbursement rates are among the lowest, he said.
Members of Doctor's Emergency Services will also reap the benefits of their donation. As part of AAMC's overall expansion, scheduled to be completed in early 2011, an eight-story patient tower, expected to cost $153 million, will include an emergency department with a larger triage area and a pediatric emergency department.
Gummerson, who is spearheading the project, said the department's expansion will help doctors do their jobs more effectively and with better resources. Along with the extra space to accommodate more patients at once, the project also brings more sophisticated information technology. This will help manage patient information, making it more easily accessible for the doctors, he said.
