D.C. Mayor Warms to Offer to Sell Hospital

Rappaport said that part of the transformation will begin before the sale is completed in the fall. And during the next year to 18 months, Specialty will bring in a "nationally known management company" to run the short-term acute-care operation. When asked whether the improvements being described would take place by September 2008, he said, "The simple answer is yes."

Asghar Shaigany, a gastroenterologist and head of the hospital's medical executive committee, said he is looking forward to a future under new ownership, remembering the pledges made when Envision bought Greater Southeast out of bankruptcy in 1999. Few promises were kept, and, in the intervening years, many doctors left and patients lost faith in the hospital as conditions worsened.

"The medical staff wants a full-service acute hospital east of the Anacostia," Shaigany said. If Specialty does what it has announced with 150 beds, "I think the medical staff will be very happy."

A spokeswoman for 1199 SEIU, which represents about 300 service workers and nurse aides at Greater Southeast, said that union officials want to see what the deal looks like in its totality. But Stacey Mink called it "a step forward in the long history of Greater Southeast."

Community activists said they are hopeful even as they wait for more information about Specialty's track record and plans.

"I'm very optimistic," said Cleve Mesidor, a Ward 7 activist. "But before we break out the parade, we need to find out more terms of the deal and their vision for expanding the hospital. Their plans sound ambitious. What we need is to make sure the strategy is sustainable."

Arrington Dixon, a former chairman of the D.C. Council who lives in Ward 8, said: "Anything that would help us maintain quality health care east of the river is important. . . . We want to have it. I would say almost at any cost, but we have to do due diligence."

The $27 million that the city would pay under the deal must be formally proposed by the mayor and approved by the council. Catania said that he expects the city to invest more than the initial payment to help Specialty acquire technology such as a magnetic resonance imaging machine. Its price tag: about $2 million.