D.C. to Invest $79 Million to Help Sale of Greater Southeast|ABC 7 News

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D.C. to Invest $79 Million to Help Sale of Greater Southeast

posted 5:40 pm Mon September 17, 2007 - WASHINGTON

tags: fenty • hosptial • sale

Mayor Adrian Fenty has announced a deal in which the city will invest $79 million in public money to help facilitate the sale of Greater Southeast Community Hospital.

The financially troubled facility, which is the city's only hospital east of the Anacostia River, will be sold to New England-based Specialty Hospitals of America. Specialty already owns two former D.C. hospitals, Capitol Hill and Hadley Memorial, which are essentially nursing homes now.

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The city will lend the group $20 million in public money to help cover the purchase price and daily operations, and Specialty will be required to pay it back within 10 years. The city will also spend $29 million to pay off the hospital's debts, and invest $30 million as a grant to upgrade the hospital's infrastructure and equipment.

Mayor Fenty says the money is part of a 'carrot and stick' approach to improving care.

"You've got to improve the quality of care, and we're giving you the resource to do so, and that's the carrot, but the stick is, if they don't, then there will be fines."

City officials have been in negotiations for weeks to help save the hospital. East-of-the-river residents in wards 7 and 8 have complained that health care services there are inadequate.

They claim the hospital's performance and services have suffered under the current operator, Envision.

The hospital has been on the verge of collapse from increasing debt.

Specialty chairman Jim Rappaport says bringing the hospital back from the brink will not be easy.

"It's going to be a tough slog, we have to understand it took along to time get here," he said. "We're going to work hard everyday to turn the hospital facilities and services around."

Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry expressed outrage over the deal, saying the Fenty administration gave away too much.

"It is now clear to me that the city could have purchased the hospital for half of what it is now giving away," he said.

Community activist Sandra Seegars expressed concern that Specialty Hospitals of America was not interested in running a hospital. She fears the deal is a short-term fix and that the group will eventually turn the facility into another nursing home.

"If this group takes over, were going to be right back here two years from now," she said.

Some hospital workers expressed support, including nurse Linda Hill.

"Whoopee Coyote, terrific, glad, great," she exclaimed.

The deal must be approved by the D.C. Council. Council Chairman Vincent Gray attended Monday's ceremony to express his support for the deal.

Latest Comment on D.C. to Invest $79 Million to Help Sale of Greater Southeast

SpareMe

8:20 pm on 09/17/07

if they can come up with $79 million now wny couldn't they come up with it months ago

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