Health Care
Increasing Integration in a Key Industry
The late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed the beginnings of the modern health care system in the LESMD Region with the opening of Peninsula General Hospital in Salisbury (1897) and the completion of Edward E. McCready Hospital in Crisfield (1923). Decades later a financial investment from Worcester County, the Town of Ocean City and the State of Maryland ushered in the creation of a separate health care system with the completion of Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin (1993). Extensive consolidation of services typical of the healthcare industry, including a 2020 merger of the Peninsula and McCready systems, has resulted in two innovative systems in the LESMD Region – Tidal Health and Atlantic General Health System.
An extensive network of primary and specialty care offices, health pavilions and main medical facilities employs thousands of individuals in the LESMD Region. In turn a significant and well defined nexus exists between the two healthcare systems and nearly all levels of the LESMD education continuum.
CTE programs in the region’s three technical high schools, as well as certification and advanced degree tracks in its two-year and four-year institutions, have long placed an emphasis on health care related training and career development. In a reciprocal effort, the healthcare systems themselves has partnered with LESMD colleges, universities, and technical high schools to provide internship and apprenticeship opportunities, thus strengthening the link between education/training and a key sector of the regional economy.
