Council member: S.E. hospital might face probe

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - D.C. Council Member David Catania said he was weighing whether to introduce a measure forcing Greater Southeast Community Hospital into receivership after executives for the failing facility refused to participate in a hearing over its future operating plans Monday.

Catania, I-at large, said he was considering one other option, to propose allowing the Council’s health committee to investigate the hospital’s management. He said he had not decided which course of action to take.

Peter Isakoff, a lawyer representing Greater Southeast owner Envision Hospital Corporation, accused Catania of a “calculated campaign” of intimidation against the corporation in a letter dated Monday.

Catania, who chairs the health committee, has been critical of Envision, accusing the company and Chairman Paul Tuft of mismanaging federal and city money and allowing the hospital to fall into disrepair. As a result, care at the 108-bed hospital has been compromised, Catania has said.

“We will not subject ourselves to your ongoing gratuitous defamations that are designed to coerce my clients into taking your evidently preferred course of action,” Isakoff wrote.

He could not be reached for comment.

The city gives the hospital about $25 million annually, a figure that does not include Medicaid or other city-subsidized care, Catania said.

The facility is the only hospital located east of the Anacostia River in D.C.

Catania accused the company of attempting to run its hospital operations into the ground so it could cash in by selling the property off to developers.

Former Mayor Anthony Williams threatened to invoke the city’s eminent domain powers to take over the hospital last September if Envision did not sell it by the end of the year. Earlier this month, Catania succeeded in persuading the council to strip Envision of the property tax abatement it had received since 2002, valued at $1.2 million annually.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com

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