QUEENSTOWN — Mary Alice Vanhoy, MSN, RN, is as close to a household name as you might find in Queen Anne’s County. Retired last month after 30 years with University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH), including 15 as nurse manager at University of Maryland Shore Emergency Center at Queenstown, Vanhoy leaves a strong legacy of nursing leadership and innovation, quality patient care and community service.
More than a decade ago, Vanhoy played a major role in Shore Regional Health’s establishment of the first-ever freestanding medical facility (FMF) in Maryland. Opened in 2010, UM Shore Emergency Center at Queenstown served as the pilot model for the establishment of FMFs in Maryland and other states. The facility now serves more than 18,000 patients every year and is joined by a second FMF within the UM SRH network of outpatient facilities, located in Cambridge. UM SRH is a member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System.
“In her 30 years with Shore Regional Health, Mary Alice never said no, she was always the first to raise her hand when we came up with an ask — and it was always a big ask — to take on broader roles,” said Ken Kozel, UM SRH President and CEO. “When we asked her to take on managing our Chestertown Emergency Department in addition to Queenstown, she said yes. Then we asked her to oversee all four of our emergency departments, and again she said yes. While these added responsibilities were supposed to be short-lived, Mary Alice maintained a heavy schedule for months at a time until we could fill vacant positions.”
Vanhoy was a strong advocate for the Queenstown emergency center as well as its nurse manager. She played an active role in the organization of galas, receptions and more recently, the annual “Claws for a Cause” crab feast, through which community members raised well over $1 million, first for the center’s construction, and more recently, to help fund the purchase of equipment, technology and other important emergency care needs. She also ensured that the center and its staff members participated in local community events, such as the annual Bay Bridge Run, for which the team provides on-site emergency care as needed.
Vanhoy’s leadership also is widely recognized outside UM SRH. In 2014, she was the first UMMS nurse (and the second nurse from Maryland) to be inducted as a Fellow of the Academy of Emergency Nursing (AEN), an international organization established to honor emergency nurses who “make enduring, substantial contributions to emergency nursing, advance the profession of emergency nursing and provide visionary leadership.” She now serves on the AEN Board of Directors. In 2018, Vanhoy was named Emergency Nurse of the Year by the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). This state-wide honor recognized her as a “leader who serves to motivate, inspire and challenge her team while promoting others to maximize their strengths and look at weaknesses as opportunities to grow.”
In July, Vanhoy resigns from her position representing emergency nursing on the board of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS). MIEMMSS leadership recently awarded her the Leon Hayes Lifetime Excellence in EMS Award in recognition of her “dedication to excellence in patient care, compassion and respect to each patient, and commitment to continuous improvement through her professional and personal life.”
Under Vanhoy’s leadership, Shore Emergency Center at Queenstown received the 2024 Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award, which honors organizations that have reached the 95th percentile for positive patient experience, employee or physician engagement, or clinical quality performance based on the past year of data.
Never one to take too much credit for herself, Vanhoy is quick to say that this achievement reflects the exceptional caliber of the Center’s entire team. “It’s everybody — the doctors, nurses and techs, for sure, but also the folks working in Security, Facilities Maintenance, IT and Housekeeping,” she said. “Just as important are our community partners, like Queen Anne’s County Emergency Services, and our local and state law enforcement agencies. This team is so solid and so dedicated in the care they provide, that’s what earned us the recognition from Press Ganey as well as the loyalty and appreciation of our patients, their families and the communities we serve.”
For many years, she was an active member with United Communities Volunteer Fire Department, holding a variety of leadership positions there. Vanhoy was responsible for the recertification of Mid-Shore EMS, paramedics, and cardiac rescue personnel when she retired. The department surprised her with a retirement and going away party at the firehouse.
In one last act for the community, Vanhoy also donated an upright player piano to Sudlersville Elementary School teacher Windy Broadwater before moving. Built in 1906, the piano has 70 rolls of player piano music the piano can play. Broadwater was thankful as the school needed a piano for its music program, saying she “never dreamed she’d get a donation of such extraordinary value for the children.” Members of UCVFD helped transport the piano to the school.
Vanhoy and her husband Jeff are in the process of moving back to her home town of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she looks forward to part-time work as an instructor in professional training programs.
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