University of Maryland Shore Regional Health welcomes new executive leader

CHESTERTOWN – Aaron “Zack” Royston, MAS, MS, FACHE, has joined University of Maryland Shore Regional Health as vice president of Rural Health Care Transformation and Executive Director of UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown, a member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System.

Royston transitions from UMMS and brings extensive health care administration and population health experience to this dual role, including finance, operations, process improvement, preventive health, and strategic planning and implementation. Most recently, he served for nearly four years as director of Clinical Integration in the Population Health Services Organization with UMMS, where his responsibilities included overseeing systemwide population health services clinical integration, data and analytics, and federal regulatory program participation; leading the selection of the Population Health and Value-Based Care platform and leading the selection, contracting and implementation of the Epic Integrated Community Resource Directory that enables System team members to support the social drivers of health.

Prior to his tenure at UMMS, Royston spent 10 years with Affinity Health Alliance, Inc., based in Elkton, including two positions with Union Hospital; executive director/director of Revenue Cycle Operations and later as the hospital’s senior vice president of Provider Services.

Royston’s earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Emergency Health Services from University of Maryland Baltimore County, and also a master’s degree in Population Health Management from Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. Early in his career, he taught in health sciences programs for area community colleges and UMBC.

Royston previously served as board chair for the West Cecil Health Center, as a board member of the Cecil County YMCA, as a Finance Committee member for the YMCA of the Chesapeake and as a member of the Cecil County Commission on Aging.

“Zack is an excellent addition to UM Shore Regional Health’s senior leadership team,” said Ken Kozel, UM SRH president and CEO “His diverse experience in finance, operations, population health, process improvement, preventive health and strategic planning will help us continue our progress in providing optimal health care services and programs in Kent County and throughout the Mid-Shore.