The new owners of Greater Southeast Community Hospital told the D.C. Council on Thursday that they have already moved to upgrade equipment, facilities and management since taking over the tormented facility in November. But it will take years, administrators said, before the hospital is in “normal operating mode.”
“It took 10 years to break this hospital, and we still believe it will take two to three years to fix it,” said Frank Wilich, co-founder of New Hampshire-based Specialty Hospitals of America, Greater Southeast’s parent company.
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The District withdrew $79 million from its tobacco-settlement fund to advance the sale of Greater Southeast, the only hospital serving 140,000 residents east of the Anacostia River. The emergency legislation, which provided a $30 million grant for physical upgrades, a $20 million loan for working capital and a $29 million loan to pay off creditors, was adopted by the Council late last year and now must be approved on a permanent basis.
Specialty has already requisitioned $16.5 million of the $20 million loan, D.C. officials said.
“I think there’s great promise here,” said Councilman David Catania, chairman of the health committee. “The fact that the hospital is here today is a miracle. This hospital was dead last year.”
Hospital CEO Gary Rowe said the following was under way: Repairing information technology equipment to allow for electronic billing; repairing or replacing radiological, surgical and emergency department equipment; improving security; replacing light fixtures; cleaning the campus; installing a new roof; and joining a new purchasing program.
“We walked into a situation where we had to pay cash for supplies, drugs and food,” Rowe said. “We’ve overcome that.”
The hospital has a new board of directors, Wilich said, after at least two years without a functioning governing body. Specialty has brought in a “turnaround management team,” he said, and it has the financial resources “adequate to its challenges.”
Greater Southeast lost its national accreditation in December. The facility was driven to near-collapse under former owner Envision Healthcare Corp., with declining services, an unsafe environment, inoperable equipment, inadequate supplies and bankrupted morale among a drastically reduced staff.
Despite the promise of change, Catania was urged to keep a watchful eye on Specialty.
“We in no way completely trust anyone at this point,” said Sharon Baskerville, executive director of the D.C. Primary Care Association. “We should be great friends and even better monitors.”
Progress at Greater Southeast?
» $5 million in radiological and imaging equipment ordered, including CT scanner
» Hired medical records manager
» Roof installation starts next week
» Landscape and parking lot cleaned, light fixtures replaced
