Mayor Anthony Williams said Tuesday he would use the District’s eminent domain power to seize control of Greater Southeast Community Hospital if the facility isn’t sold by the end of the year.
The authority for a takeover is included in omnibus health care legislation Williams is putting before the D.C. Council, the heart of which is a plan to invest $248 million in initiatives ranging from cancer treatment and tobacco cessation to new emergency centers east of the Anacostia.
“We have an incredible opportunity right now, this fall, to invest in our community health care network and significantly improve our capacity to treat, manage and prevent serious diseases in the District of Columbia,” Williams said.
As part of the bill, Williams wants to spend $80 million to renovate and expand Howard University and Greater Southeast hospitals’ emergency rooms.
The investment in Greater Southeast would be contingent on the hospital changing hands or the city wresting it from the hands of Doctors Community Healthcare Corp.
“This is going to enable us, if we need to, to hire an organization to come in and manage the hospital,” the mayor said.
The mayor’s legislation would establish a community health care fund, financed with the District’s tobacco settlement windfall. Much of the money would be used to:
» Construct a health complex on the former site of D.C. General Hospital, putting emergency, primary and specialty care under one roof.
» Develop two ambulatory care centers, onein Ward 7 and one in Ward 8.
» Fight and prevent chronic diseases and tobacco dependence.
D.C. Council Member David Catania, chairman of the health committee, called the investment “unprecedented.” Ward 8 Council Member Marion Barry pledged to get the bill passed by the end of the year.
The bill is the product of a task force established by the mayor earlier this year after he yanked his support for the proposed National Capital Medical Center.
