Southeast Washington Hospital Deal Announced

A $400 million hospital proposed for Southeast Washington, pushed by supporters as a medical mecca that will transform health care in long-underserved neighborhoods, was signed into official development today by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and the president of Howard University.

With understated flourish, Williams and H. Patrick Swygert put their names on an exclusive-rights agreement to guide the joint venture in coming months. The National Capital Medical Center would include a 250-bed facility and top-level trauma care, as well as a physicians office building and ambitious research focus. It would be completed by 2009 on the grounds of the former D.C. General Hospital, which Williams closed nearly five years ago despite staunch community opposition.

The mayor urged the D.C. Council to approve the project without delay -- and without requiring it to go through the independent regulatory review that such major capital construction typically would face.

Williams called it a "historic day for our city" and said the hospital "will help change lives for the better in our city."

Swygert said the university entered into the partnership "with enthusiasm and a continuing commitment to health care for the District of Columbia."

Speedy passage, however, seems somewhat unlikely. Some council members have been increasingly concerned, even skeptical, about the complex's scope, financial viability and impact on other institutions, and they will not find full answers in the document released today.

For one, the 25-page agreement does not specify how much care the medical center would provide to uninsured District residents. Council members David Catania (I-At Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) have suggested the level could be a make-or-break issue for them given the city's expected investment of more than $212 million in site preparation and construction costs. But the document only lists a minimal percentage of care, at a level that appears to be a fraction of that provided by the university's existing hospital on Georgia Avenue NW.

Still to be determined is the composition of the new non-profit corporation's governance board or who would appoint its members. Though public funds would pay for half the cost of building the hospital, Howard would own and operate it. The District's board representatives would be the city's only continuing voice.

The agreement also is silent on the ultimate plan for the current Howard University Hospital, other than noting the transfer of that hospital's "Level 1 Trauma Center and all associated services." Between the two facilities, the total number of beds would not exceed the 482 for which the university is currently licensed on Georgia Avenue.

However, the university president said that the closure of Howard's Northwest facility was "not possible."