Maryland Department of Health Cyberattack:
The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) website is offline after a cyberattack that is currently being investigated. This is a top story in local media today. Some MDH services and resources have been taken offline. MDH is working with federal and state authorities to address the incident and gather further information on the extent of the intrusion. More information will be provided as it becomes available.
The Omicron Variant:
Our battle against COVID-19 has taught us that vigilance, teamwork, exhaustion, endurance, science, and hope are all very much tangible. On December 23, 2020, we joined together and with Governor Hogan, the federal government, and our private sector partners at CVS and Walgreens we rolled out the largest vaccine deployment in several decades. We learned in the following weeks that the vaccines worked! Unfortunately, around this time last year we were also at the beginning of a winter/holiday surge of COVID-19 that proved worse than the original surge in the spring of 2020. As of last week, about 68 skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers and 38 assisted living campuses have an outbreak of at least one COVID-19 case. Despite our best efforts, we can unfortunately expect those numbers to again increase around the holidays. Yet, with our continued vigilance and our ongoing push for vaccinations and boosters, we can manage these outbreaks and prevent deaths. Together we will hope that the vaccines and the boosters remain effective against the Omicron variant and that this variant’s symptoms remain mild and mortality remains low.
Now is NOT a time for any of us to let down our guard – together, we must continue advocating for people to receive the vaccine and the booster. We are eternally grateful to Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates Adrienne Jones, as well as Cherie Taylor and Renee Harris of the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington for recording this HFAM public service video to help encourage people living and working in skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers and on assisted living campuses to get vaccinated—and to get the booster!
Maryland General Assembly and the US Congress:
As we all know, so much of what we all do in healthcare is primarily funded and regulated by federal, state, and local governments. Our colleagues at AHCA/NCAL, with HFAM and other state leaders at their side, continue to advance our federal quality care agenda with Congress and the Biden Administration.
Here in Maryland, we do the same with the Hogan Administration and with Maryland General Assembly. In recent weeks we have had several meetings with Maryland legislators and executive branch leaders. We have spoken on a range of issues, but we are primarily focused on funding, workforce shortages, and the price gouging of health staffing agencies. Last week, HFAM facilitated a joint association call on price gouging— I am so very thankful to my colleagues Allison Ciborowski at LeadingAge Maryland and Kevin Heffner at LifeSpan for their partnership on this and other key issues, such as the shortage of newly licensed nursing home administrators. Finally, please know that HFAM is fully engaged as the Maryland General Assembly goes into special session this week to vote on veto overrides and federal map redistricting.
Let me please end were I generally begin: THANK YOU! Thank you for the quality care you and your teams provide to Marylanders in need. Thank you for saving lives. Thank you for the hands held and the care provided. And, thank you for your support of HFAM.
