Mayor Adrian Fenty said Thursday he was pleased with the impending sale of Greater Southeast Community Hospital, but he would not commit to spending taxpayer dollars to ensure the deal gets done.
“If there’s a need for some government support, we are willing to look at that,” Fenty said. “There’s no proposal in front of us right now, so it would be premature and irresponsible to say that we’re at a full agreement. Maybe they don’t even need any government money.
“But I think what’s important is that the lion’s share of this deal will be between two private-sector companies.”
Envision Hospital Corp., Greater Southeast’s oft-criticized owner, agreed late Wednesday to sell the failing hospital to Portsmouth, N.H.-based Specialty Hospitals of America for $31.5 million. The deal is expected to close by Nov. 1.
Eric F. Rieseberg, Specialty’s president and chief operating officer, said a rehabbed Greater Southeast could house up to seven “boutique” medical providers, in addition to primary care offices and the existing emergency, obstetrics and gynecological programs. The total number of hospital beds in the “medical mall” could grow to as many as 520 in three years.
Rieseberg declined to discuss the specifics of the deal.
But city sources said the scenario under discussion would have the District paying upward of $17 million in Greater Southeast’s unpaid bills, then loaning Specialty millions more for critical medical equipment such as an MRI machine and ventilators.
The D.C. Council would have to approve such a deal.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for a hundred different mechanisms to hopefully give a little and salvage that facility,” Rieseberg said.
Council Member David Catania, chair of the health committee, said the sale would “begin a promising and exciting new era in health care in the District.” Catania has for some time been pressuring Envision to move on, seeking the power to issue subpoenas or even pursue a receivership.
“For too long, Greater Southeast Community Hospital has been synonymous with turmoil,” Catania said in a statement. “This announcement represents an opportunity to close this chapter in our history.”
