A Web Review: Shore Health System

A Web Review: Shore Health System

The Shore Health System website at www.shorehealth.org provides information on two local hospitals, an emergency center, numerous additional inpatient and outpatient services, a magazine for patients and other health information and news. The public can even access information on Shore Health System on Twitter. Since 1996 Shore Health System has been providing unsurpassed care to the Eastern Shore's Mid-Shore, Maryland's area.

In 2006 Shore Health System joined with the University of Maryland Medical System and brought a supreme medical team to the Eastern Shore of Maryland (Shore Health System: University of Maryland Medical System, 2011). The Shore Health System's website allows the public 24 hour a day access to information about Memorial Hospital at Easton, Dorchester General Hospital in Cambridge, Queen Anne Emergency Center, The Freeman Outpatient Center, The University of Maryland Medical System, The Navigator Magazine (published by the Corporate Communications of Shore Health Systems), billing for any of the involved centers, career and volunteer opportunities and healthcare information. The Memorial Hospital of Easton has been serving Easton, MD, Talbot County and the surrounding counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland since the early 1900's. Dorchester General Hospital in Cambridge, MD has been serving the surrounding counties since the late 1800's. Both facilities merged to form Shore Health System in 1996 to increase the quality of care and to increase the amount of services that they could provide for their citizens, and then joined with The University of Maryland Medical System in 2006, furthering the services it could offer to its citizens (Shore Health System: University of Maryland Medical System, 2011).

The website provides an interactive guide for visitors to the site. The guide for visitors allows for what is and is not allowed in the hospitals. The patient guide provides information about the patient's rights and responsibilities, speaking up to their physicians and care staff, what to expect during their stay, advance directives, hospital resources, and even maps of the hospital. The website provides a physician locator. The locator allows the searcher to explore the online physician database or search specifically for doctors that are accepting new patients. This portion of the site even provides a map of the local health offices. This service is invaluable for patients that have to visit

(Shore Health System: University of Maryland Medical System, 2011)

offices of several different physicians, or for family members or friends that are driving patients to their visits.

The Shore Health System website also provides a service called Health News. This portion of the site includes the Navigator Magazine which is published quarterly by Shore Health, press releases, a health library, events and training for the public, an annual nursing report, the annual cancer center report, a link to follow Shore Health System on Twitter and a news archive. The health library is a plethora of information and research about diseases and their symptoms, treatments and other pertinent information. The drug interaction checker is included in this section and is a crucial tool for anyone on medication. In today's technological age, many people are turning to things such as Twitter for their information; Shore Health System is no different. The Health News section of the website will walk you through signing up to receive Tweets on Twitter. One of these Tweets is "It's Never Too Late To Prevent Diabetes - Jan 19, 10 -11am, Joslin Diabetes Center FREE. Call 410-822-1000 or 410-228-5511, ext. 5757. 7:04 AM Jan 14th via web (Shore Health System: University of Maryland Medical System, 2011)." This Tweet was advertising a training session available for the public for free.

Twitter is certainly not the only way the public can receive information on the events at the Shore Health Systems facilities. The website provides a monthly event calendar under their services section. This calendar offers information on everything from classes to sales. The classes themselves range from the free to the fee, and things such as mastering positive thinking to traditional Reiki. Perhaps a patient has just been placed on an insulin pump and wishes to learn how better to deal with this adjustment:

"Insulin Pump Support Group Wednesday, February 16, 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm, Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology, Memorial Hospital, 219 S. Washington Street, Easton. FREE. Call 410-822-1000 or 410-228-5511, ext. 5757 (Shore Health System: University