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Maryland EMS agency budget rises to $25.8M as critical-care coordination center remains unfunded
Summary
The Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIMS) told the House Appropriations subcommittee its fiscal 2026 budget rises to $25.8 million but does not include funding to restart its Critical Care Coordination Center, which was placed in hibernation in June 2024 after federal grant funding expired.
The Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems' fiscal 2026 allowance totals $25,800,000, $3 million more than the fiscal 2025 appropriation, Department of Legislative Services analyst Naomi Kimura told the Health and Social Services Subcommittee on Jan. 29.
The increase is driven primarily by personnel costs, including salary and fringe-benefit increases, and includes two new positions: a contractual ambulance inspector (already filled) and a program manager to oversee an AED-naloxone co-location requirement, Kimura said. The budget also includes a $390,000 CDC-funded pilot to collect hospital bed-capacity data as part of the National Healthcare Safety Network.
Why it matters: Maryland has higher emergency department transfer and wait times than the national average, a trend MIMS and multiple statewide efforts are trying to address. DLS highlighted that calendar-year 2023 median emergency-department wait times averaged 163 minutes across U.S. jurisdictions but were 250 minutes in Maryland, and asked MIMS for more detail on how the agency will help reduce those times.
MIMS Executive Director Dr. Delbridge told the subcommittee MIMS monitors EMS-to-emergency-department transfer intervals by providing weekly transfer-time reports to hospital leadership and monthly data to the Health Services Cost Review Commission to support the Hospital Throughput Work Group's efforts. "Approximately 40% of Maryland's emergency departments meet the 35 target more than 90% of the time," he said, describing modest recent improvements.
Delbridge described MIMS's Critical Care Coordination Center (C4), created in December 2020 to help hospitals locate critical-care resources statewide and, when necessary, arrange transfers to out-of-state hospitals. "Over the course of its 43 months of operation, we fielded 7,000 calls from hospital clinicians trying to locate critical care resources for their patients," Delbridge said, and added that C4 activity obviated the need for transfer in roughly 30% of cases.
The C4 went into "hibernation" in June 2024 after the grant funding that supported it expired. Delbridge said MIMS is seeking grant opportunities to restart the C4 and hopes to resume operations in fiscal 2026, but the fiscal 2026 allowance contains no funding specifically for the C4. DLS requested MIMS specify the amount of fiscal 2024 appropriation cancelled for the C4 and to explain its funding plan for fiscal 2026.
Other budget details noted by DLS and MIMS: telecommunications costs of more than $3 million; about $2.3 million for building and equipment maintenance (including communications-tower upkeep statewide); a proposed fiscal 2025 deficiency of $280,000 for Parole Tower renovation (the difference between estimated and actual cost); and a Board of Public Works allocation of $1 million for that project. Delbridge also confirmed MIMS licenses and certifies nearly 20,000 EMS clinicians and oversees about 496 ambulances that completed over 240,000 patient transports last year.
DLS recommended concurring with the governor's allowance for MIMS while requesting clarifications about the C4 cancellation and funding plan. MIMS said it will continue seeking grant funds to reestablish the C4 and will respond to DLS requests for additional detail.
