The nation’s capital city has never gotten over the closing of D.C. General, its main hospital for poor people. Its policy of trying to heal every person who stumbled through the door, from gunshot victims to AIDS patients, was highly Hippocratic but barely economic. In its final months, doctors went unpaid, hospital rooms turned filthy, patients languished — until then-mayor Anthony Williams pulled the plug in May 2001. But closing D.C. General “did not absolve the D.C. government from providing health care to that population,” says Washington Hospital Center’s Janis Orlowski, as I reported in a recent column. Orlowski, the hospital’s chief medical officer, is bearing some responsibility and might be part of the solution. As I write, the city’s politicians are at war over United Medical Center, the closest hospital to D.C.’s most needy residents east of the Anacostia River: pregnant moms, HIV patients, sick kids. Mayor Vince Gray and most of the D.C. Council want to sell it; David Catania, an at-large council member, wants to keep it in the city’s hands for two years, then reassess.
Let’s agree that the hospital at 1310 Southern Avenue has cost the city more than $100 million in subsidies, and it still doesn’t provide ideal care. But Gray and the council seem headed for a fire sale to local businessman George Chopivsky. This is questionable at best and potentially disastrous.
Chairman Kwame Brown is scheduled at Tuesday’s council session to add three members to the hospital’s board. He’s acting on behalf of Gray, who wants to get control of the board, the better to sell UMC. Down this road lies a thicket of cronyism and questionable business deals. For example, the Chopivsky’s lobbyist is Linda Greene, a personal friend of Gray and family friend of Brown. Chopivsky’s never run a full-service hospital, and his track record operating psychiatric hospitals includes detours into bankruptcies, lawsuits and tax liens.
Rest assured Catania and the press will explore these potentially seamy sides.
Meanwhile, Catania and the hospital have been making verifiable improvements. Catania has forged relationships with the best caregivers in the nation’s capital: Children’s National Medical Center has opened a pediatric emergency room; National Institutes of Health and Howard University last Monday opened an HIV/AIDS clinic; Washington Hospital Center has staffed an obstetrics unit to care for moms and babies.
Good things are happening, but not fast enough. Bond-rating agencies told D.C. leaders last week that UMC must be off the city’s books in a year, if the city wants to preserve its high rating.
So we have a year to spruce up and deal UMC. Here’s how:
Since NIH, Howard, Washington Hospital and Children’s have a physical and financial stake in UMC, let them form a consortium and take over the hospital wall to wall, perhaps under Medstar, the regional hospital king.
Failing that, bring in a Wall Street investment banking firm to execute a sale to the best candidate.
In both cases, professionals would hold sway over the politicians. Otherwise, the poor folks lose — again.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
