Mercy Opens New Maternal Health and Preventive Care Center at Revitalized Mead Building

(Baltimore, MD) - As part of the Mercy mission to address serious health inequities and to empower vulnerable populations to better manage their health, Mercy Health Services (MHS) has unveiled the first phase completion of The Maternal Health and Preventive Care Center, Dr. David N. Maine, MHS President and CEO has announced.

The Center will provide Baltimore’s neediest citizens with comprehensive pre-natal services including onsite diagnostic ultrasound and lab services;  easy access to Mercy Medical Center’s Center for Advanced Fetal Care (specializing in high risk pregnancy issues); chronic disease diagnostics and management, insurance navigation, on-site patient education and social work services, and referrals to community resources.

The first phase of renovations to the Mead Center began in summer 2021 with new signage and updates to the main lobby and work on the 6,500 square foot 4^th floor, which includes 10 patient exam rooms, three portable ultrasounds, 10 OB-GYN physicians and midwives, one clinical nurse practitioner and one perinatal coordinator.

“Mercy provides in excess of $70 million in community benefit and charity care each year as part of our ongoing efforts to care for the sick and injured, no matter their social or economic condition. To that end, Mercy has launched the Maternal Health and Preventive Care Center to provide one high standard of care, in one location, to at-risk expectant mothers and high-risk chronically ill patients,” Dr. Maine said.

The Center is located in Mercy’s newly revitalized Mead Center building, located at 315 North Calvert Street in downtown Baltimore, and when fully constructed is expected to represent approximately more than $10 million investment by MHS, public and private donors, and the State of Maryland.

The 4^th floor is now home to the Metropolitan OB-GYN practice under the medical direction of Cyrus Lawyer, M.D., Ph.D. Metropolitan OB-GYN and its staff have provided gynecologic and obstetric care to generations of women throughout the Baltimore area. Their team includes: Dr. Cyrus Lawyer, Medical Director; Drs. Carolyn Cokes, and Yves-Richard Dole; midwives Tarnisha Hemphill, CNM, Kia Hollis, CNM, and Danielle Keene, CNM; nurse practitioner Keysha Reid-Webb, FNP; and Anika Johnson, CNM, who cares for patients on The Bunting Labor and Delivery unit.

Sister Helen Amos, RSM, Executive Chair, MHS Board of Trustees, remarked at the recent blessing ceremony of the Metropolitan OB-GYN suite and staff:  “Today marks another milestone in our re-commitment journey. We are celebrating the move of a first-class medical practice, Metropolitan OB-GYN, into a first-class space that is suitable for supporting a broad approach to the well-being of mothers, their babies, and their whole families.”

Further renovations will include the Mead Building’s first, second and third floors which will house both clinical and administrative offices for population health, preventive care, and expanded OB-GYN services for the community.

The Mead Building is named for the late Dr. Joseph Anthony Mead, Jr., former vice president for medical affairs and chief of the department of internal medicine at Mercy. When Dr. Mead retired in 1995, Mercy named the Calvert Street facility in his honor.

“Dr. Mead was an advocate of care for the underserved. He played a key role in creating Health Care for the Homeless and the Baltimore Child Abuse Center. It is therefore appropriate that the Mead Building house this new center, dedicated to serving the community’s most vulnerable,” Dr. Maine said.