Report Details Drop In Care at Hospital

D.C. Council Revokes Tax Break

From an emergency department with faulty monitors, IV pumps and broken stretchers to an operating room running part time for lack of staff, patient care is increasingly limited and uncertain at Greater Southeast Community Hospital, according to a draft report by District health regulators.

The report lists worker and equipment shortages extending throughout the 110-bed facility, with the situation in radiology particularly severe. Housekeeping and maintenance crews have been cut so much they cannot keep up with basic chores, leading the regulators to conclude that the hospital "is not maintained in a safe and sanitary manner."

An inspection team spent four days last week at Greater Southeast after a hearing before the D.C. Council Health Committee outlined deteriorating conditions. Their findings spurred searing criticism of the facility yesterday and prompted Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to direct health officials to decide within 48 hours how to correct the myriad deficiencies.

"Health care at Greater Southeast is at an all-time low," said council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8).

The drumbeat of details also prompted the council to revoke a property tax break that the hospital's corporate owner was supposed to use for capital improvements and the purchase of high-tech equipment, such as an MRI machine. After six years, the abatement has totaled about $30 million, said Health Committee Chairman David A. Catania (I-At Large).

"These expenditures never happened and never will," he told his colleagues. "Instead, we have provided a windfall for the hospital's management to do with as they please while placing the health and well-being of District residents in harm's way."

Officials at the Arizona-based Envision Hospital Corp. could not be reached for response yesterday. The for-profit company is trying to sell Greater Southeast, the city's only hospital east of the Anacostia River, after nearly eight years of frequently troubled operations.

The hospital's chief executive, Cyril Allen, declined to comment until he could review the report. But he took issue with the assessment of hazardous conditions.

"As far as I'm concerned, this is a safe environment or we wouldn't come here," he said.

A D.C. Health Department spokeswoman said the report would be finalized before the end of the week and given to the hospital. Within days, "Greater Southeast will be required to submit a corrective action plan," spokeswoman Leila Abrar said.

The latest look at the hospital's worsening circumstances is essentially a just-the-facts accounting, not an analysis. Its department-by-department rundown also cites areas where staffing is adequate, equipment is in working order and supplies as basic as linens are available. But those pluses are undercut by a lengthy litany of negatives: