Around Maryland

Maryland hospitals largely escaped the financial crisis that struck providers nationwide in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when elective procedures were canceled and routine care was postponed. That’s thanks, in part, to a unique system for regulating hospital revenue. The same system saved taxpayers $781 million in Medicare costs over three years and improved quality of care, according to a recent report.

Maryland ranked fifth in the nation for having the fewest COVID-19 deaths per capita in a comprehensive study on variations in pandemic policies and behaviors among states published Thursday in The Lancet. The state was likely helped during the pandemic by its relatively low poverty rate and high level of educational attainment, said Emma Castro, a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle and a co-lead author on the paper.

City and county officials shared “grave concerns” when the news broke Friday that a company in South Baltimore would be treating contaminated water from the Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio and disposing it to the city sewer system, and eventually the troubled Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Dundalk.

Prevention is a tricky business, according to Nadine Finigan-Carr. Take, for example, measles, mumps and chickenpox — contagions she experienced as a child. Vaccines have been so effective at fighting off the trio that some people now lack appreciation for the protections they provide. “When you prevent something, people don’t realize it’s even there,” she said.

With Baltimore’s tax sale date set for May 15, homeowners who owe at least $750 in property taxes or citations, or a combination of both, are at risk of losing their home to tax sale. To help families hold onto their homes, Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (MVLS) in partnership with the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland and Stop Oppressive Seizures (SOS) Fund, will host three free tax sale prevention clinics to help struggling homeowners.

When a teenage Joan Kelly Crowder stepped through the double doors of Fairmont Heights Junior-Senior High School for the first time, in flat black shoes and a burgundy empire dress, she knew she was home. Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. Greeted by the smells of home-cooked food, the iron and hair grease of fresh press and curls and the newness of her classmates’ clothes, Crowder felt free to be herself in this all-Black space in a majority-White county.

As a nurse, Danielle Hatfield knows her way around the health care system. Living with diabetes and arthritis, she also frequently uses the system as a patient. Lately, she’s run into hurdles finding doctors. Endocrinologists have placed her on long waitlists, some running two years. Rheumatologists haven’t had appointments available for months. Then her young stepdaughter, with her own complex health needs, had her long-time primary care provider leave the practice, forcing them to search for a new doctor.

A New York priest known for her collaborative leadership style and for building the strength of congregations has been chosen as the next bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. The Rev. Carrie Schofield-Broadbent, 48, a longtime deputy to the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, was elected Saturday to succeed the Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton as the 15th bishop of the diocese. She is the first woman to be elected to the position.