By Valencia Mohammed
AFRO Staff Writer
It’s official. Greater Southeast Community Hospital has a new name to go along with its new image. Officially named the United Medical Center by its newest owners, Specialty Hospitals of America (SHA), LLC, received $79 million from the District government to assist in the purchase of the hospital. SHA has used $12 million to jump start a three-year process to put more public trust into the health care provider.
For years, the beleaguered Greater Southeast Community Hospital, the only medical center in Anacostia has struggled with its image for years. According to community leaders, many Blacks were under the false perception the hospital was incapable of providing the best possible medical care because it was a Black-owned and managed and that it catered to low-income residents.
Another well-known fact is the controversy surrounding National Century Financial Enterprise (NCFE), the financial partner of Doctors Community Healthcare Corporation. The chief executive of NCFE was arrested for buying the financial receivables of the hospital and bundling them into securities, taking the profits and not paying the hospital’s bills. Mistrust grew among city leaders.
The negative perception, mistrust, along with the fact that the hospital was located in far southeast, where Whites and affluent Blacks dare not tread, made it difficult to get a positive rating from the community.
“Perception is everything to many Black Americans who watched the city close D.C. General, our only public hospital to offer us a facility that was quite inadequate,” said Anthony Muhammad, chair of advisory neighborhood commission (ANC) 8A08. “We wanted the best.”
SHA, a New Hampshire-based firm demonstrated its ability to conduct turnaround operations in the D.C. market with the acquisition -- return to profitability and accreditation of two previously failing medical facilities.
The two facilities are now operating as Specialty Hospital of Washington - Capitol Hill and the Specialty Hospital of Washington – Hadley, housing long-term critical care and skilled nursing facilities.
As part of the turnaround for the United Medical Center, the facility received a new roof and generators, technological upgrades, major improvements in the emergency department and replacement of nearly all radiology equipment.
Community leaders weigh-in on the radical changes.
“The new group is trying hard to improve the hospital, but it is going to take some time. The appearance is better. However, it probably needed more money than it had anticipated,” said community activist and longtime Ward 8 resident, Sandra Seegars.
But not all community leaders are satisfied with the first stages of the improvements. Muhammad believes it will take more than paint and technology improvements to bring new clientele. “Specialty hasn’t brought an explanation to the community about what it’s doing. No one has reached out to the community leaders and commissioners to involve us in this new direction,” Muhammad said.
UMC officials disagreed. "We have a vested interest in working with the advisory neighborhood commissions (ANC) to continue our outreach to the community. Calvin Smith, the vice president of Community Relations at United Medical Center, has already attended ANC meetings, and I personally have met with four separate commissioners,” said Gary Rowe, interim CEO of United Medical Center.
“In addition, we are hosting an ANC meeting here at the hospital at the end of June, and have distributed our community newsletter to all ANC commissioners in the hopes they will distribute it in their community.” Rowe is also advisory neighborhood commissioner.
According to Rowe, when Specialty Hospitals took over seven months ago, it focused most of its efforts on improving the hospital for code compliance. “We have just now begun our focus on community outreach, and this will continue to be one of our top priorities,” said Rowe. “This hospital deteriorated over 15 years, and over the past seven months we have already made great strides. Our numbers have improved and people are beginning to trust us again. We will do everything in power to continue with these positive changes."
A spokeswoman for UMC said it plans to show residents of Wards 6, 7 and 8 that it could be “trusted” to deliver the best possible healthcare to all of its patients. “Some patients would wait as long as six hours in the emergency room for services. We have corrected that problem by establishing proper protocol,” she said. Councilman Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) said the bottom line is better healthcare. “I’ll go back if it improves on all of its healthcare services.”