Connecting Rural Hospitals – University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS)

Connecting Rural Hospitals – University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS)

Overview

In 2010, Maryland Broadband Cooperative (MdBC) partnered with the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), Maryland’s flagship hospital network, to build a dedicated dark fiber infrastructure linking urban and rural health centers across the state. This forward-thinking initiative connected the University of Maryland Medical Center in Downtown Baltimore with the UMMS Technical Operations Center (TOC) in Columbia and key rural hospitals on the Eastern Shore, including locations in Cambridge, Chestertown, Easton, Havre de Grace, La Plata, and Queenstown.

UMMS is regarded not only as Maryland’s flagship hospital system, but also as one of the premier healthcare networks in the country. Its unique Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore is a nationally recognized model for critical emergency care, providing life-saving services to residents across the state, many of whom are transported from rural areas by helicopter. The existence of this life saving service is considered one of the unique benefits of living in Maryland.

This network investment improved system-wide telecommunications, enabled health system coordination, and expanded access to world-class trauma and specialty care for patients in rural Maryland, delivering on UMMS’s vision of equity in medical excellence.

Project Objectives

• Enable rural UMMS hospitals to operate with the same communications capacity as urban centers
• Establish a secure, integrated dark fiber network to support critical medical operations
• Improve emergency response coordination through low-latency, high-capacity data transmission
• Lay groundwork for telehealth, consultation, and centralized system monitoring

Project Components

1. Dedicated Dark Fiber Network Deployment

MdBC deployed a dark fiber backbone connecting:

• University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) – Baltimore
• UMMS Technical Operations Center (TOC) – Columbia
• Rural Hospitals – Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland (Cambridge, Chestertown, Easton, Havre de Grace, La Plata, and Queenstown).

UMMS leased dark fiber from MdBC and utilized co-location facilities to regenerate and redirect their signals across the network. This approach provided UMMS with complete flexibility to deploy any optical platform of their choosing, operating traffic at any speed necessary. Hospital network administrators gained complete control over the infrastructure, allowing them to manage their communications securely, reliably, and cost-effectively.

2. Support for System-Wide Software and Equipment Upgrades

At the time, UMMS was undergoing a major IT upgrade. The new dark fiber infrastructure was a foundational requirement to support these system-wide improvements, including real-time medical imaging, hospital coordination, and disaster recovery systems.

Community Impact

Expanded Access to World-Class Medical Services

UMMS is home to one of the nation’s premier trauma programs, including its world-renowned Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Thanks to the connectivity enabled by MdBC’s fiber infrastructure, patients in remote communities could now access expert consultation, diagnostics, and medical support comparable to what they’d receive in the urban core.

Improved Patient Outcomes and Emergency Preparedness

The Shock Trauma system enables critically injured patients from across the state to be airlifted to UMMC. The survival rates for these patients are among the highest in the nation. Connecting rural hospitals to this system via secure fiber improved emergency coordination and overall outcomes for patients statewide.

Collaborative Support

This project was made possible through collaboration among University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), Maryland Broadband Cooperative (MdBC), 8 of its Cooperative Members, and the State of Maryland.

Legacy and Vision

UMMS was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic institutional members of MdBC. Visionaries like Jon Burns, longtime executive at UMMS, recognized the power of fiber infrastructure to ensure rural Maryland hospitals could provide the same quality of care as their urban counterparts. This project embodied that vision and continues to serve as a model for how cooperative broadband infrastructure can support life-saving health care delivery.

Today, the network remains vital to UMMS’s operational resilience and telehealth capacity, reinforcing MdBC’s mission to deploy future-ready infrastructure where needed most.

Quote

“UMMS’s vision was clear: rural hospitals should have access to the same world-class medical resources as any facility in Baltimore. This fiber network brought that vision to life by eliminating the digital divide as an impediment to world class healthcare in a rural setting.”
— Drew Van Dopp, President & CEO, Maryland Broadband Cooperative

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