Code Blue for a Hospital or Two

For its part, Howard is still smarting from the demise of its plan, worked out with former mayor Tony Williams, for a major new health complex and teaching hospital on city land near the D.C. Armory and the site of the old D.C. General Hospital.

The overly ambitious scheme was done in by opposition from the city's other hospitals and health advocates, all of whom convinced the city council, and eventually Williams himself, that the real need was for better primary and preventive care delivered at community "healthplexes," facilities that combine doctors' offices, outpatient surgery, an emergency room and a 24-hour urgent-care center.

That pretty much puts Howard back at square one in its search for a quality, economically viable teaching hospital that would allow it to fulfill its mission of training black doctors and providing care to the region's black community.

And while Providence Hospital claims it has turned the corner financially, it still struggles to attract enough specialists to guarantee the patient volume required to support a full range of services and the most modern equipment. Perhaps that is why Providence has thought about a possible collaboration with Prince George's Hospital Center.

Dimensions Healthcare System, which operates the county hospital, is yet another outfit that has put itself up for sale, only to find no takers. To make itself more attractive to a would-be buyer, Dimensions came up with the loopy idea of building yet another new hospital in Bowie until state regulators balked. Now the governor and some legislators have proposed forcing a reluctant University of Maryland Medical System to take over Dimensions, while County Executive Johnson says he's negotiating with a possible private buyer that he won't name.

Unfortunately, there will be no lasting solution here until the political leaders of the District and Maryland take a hard-nosed look at how many and what types of medical facilities are really needed, where they would best be located and how they might be jointly financed.

District Mayor Adrian Fenty has already taken a step in that direction by commissioning a six-month study from the health experts at the Rand Corp. Gov. Martin O'Malley and County Executive Johnson would do well to co-finance the study and take seriously its recommendations rather than embarking on yet another doomed strategy to save every existing hospital.

Steven Pearlstein can be reached atpearlsteins@washpost.com.