District officials said yesterday that they have struck a "deal in principle" with Howard University to build a 230-bed medical complex in Southeast Washington that would provide first-class trauma care to some of the city's poorest neighborhoods while offering high-quality specialty services to patients of all income levels.
The National Capital Medical Center, to be constructed on the grounds of the former D.C. General Hospital at Massachusetts Avenue and 19th Street SE, would cost an estimated $400 million, officials said. Howard and the city would split the cost of construction. The District would provide the land and pay for infrastructure; the university would operate the facility without further taxpayer subsidy.
"This will not be a poor person's hospital," Mayor Anthony A. Williams said. "This will be a hospital of national prestige."
(J. Scott Applewhite -- AP)
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The Post's Lori Montgomery discusses the District's "deal" with Howard University for a new hospital.
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Hospital Distribution: City officials said the proposed National Capital Medical Center would give residents quick access to a full-service hospital and emergency rooms.
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"This will not be a poor person's hospital. This will be a hospital of national prestige that happens to be located on this site," Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said at a news conference. The mayor was flanked by Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert and City Administrator Robert C. Bobb, who is handling the negotiations.
"Many challenges lie before us. But no study has indicated that this project is infeasible," Swygert said. "We think a new facility on [the D.C. General site] will soon be a reality."
If approved by the D.C. Council, the hospital would be the first built in the nation's capital since George Washington University replaced its facility in 2002, according to the D.C. Hospital Association. It also would end a bitter political debate over Williams's decision to close D.C. General in 2001, leaving the capital's eastern fringes without quick access to an emergency room and dispersing indigent patients to hospitals across the city.
Howard and District officials have yet to reach final agreement on the project, and Williams and Swygert declined to describe the obstacles. Bobb said they include the city's request that certain services be provided at the hospital. In addition, studies conducted for the city indicate that Howard would be hard-pressed to operate the new hospital and its existing hospital on Georgia Avenue NW without additional public funds.
Swygert said Howard is "committed" to keeping its hospital, which serves as a teaching facility for the university's medical school and employs 2,000 people. Bobb said the city is equally determined not to provide operating cash for the new medical center. Neither side addressed that seemingly fundamental disagreement, treating it as just another matter to be ironed out.
Swygert said Howard hopes legislation will reach the council as soon as late spring. Bobb said he hopes the hospital will open its doors before spring 2008, when construction is supposed to be completed on the city's new baseball stadium.
"With the same level of intensity we're doing the baseball stadium, we're going to do this hospital. With the same level of political power, expert power, political will and commitment," Bobb said in an interview. "This is equally important. . . . and I can't think of a more worthy cause to push."
According to Bobb, the city would generate about $100 million for the project by selling the old convention center site or by dedicating sales tax revenue from that site to the hospital. Another $100 million would be raised through revenue bonds issued against the medical center's income or would be taken directly from the city's general fund, he said.
Council member Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6), who chairs the council's Economic Development Committee, said she sees problems with Bobb's funding plans. The old convention center site is not for sale, she said. "We already have developers. We've already been through a lawsuit about it. And I see another one on the horizon," Ambrose said. "This is just incredible."
Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large) is scheduled to hold a hearing today on the project, which until yesterday had been wrapped in secrecy. Catania, chairman of the council's Health Committee, said he is not convinced the project is financially sound.
"I'll be asking the city administrator and Howard to fill in some pretty large holes in the tapestry of this project," Catania said. "I remain committed to the notion of a hospital on the site of D.C. General. But it has to make sense. . . . I don't want to set up another hospital to fail on that site."
Reaction from other council members and other hospitals was muted. Robert A. Malson, president of the D.C. Hospital Association, said association members are analyzing the city's economic studies. Council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7), whose constituents would be among the primary beneficiaries of the hospital, said the mayor's office had not discussed the project with him.
"I would want to understand where this money is coming from," said Gray, who sits on the Health Committee. "I wholeheartedly support going forward with this. That's the desirable solution. Now somebody tell me the feasibility of it."
