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Council member: Hospital making progress, improvements
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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A day after the D.C. Council approved an investigation of Greater Southeast Community Hospital’s operations, Council Member David Catania backed down from threats of action against the troubled facility’s owners, citing progress on staffing, equipment and sanitation problems.
Catania, chairman of the council’s health committee and a vocal critic of hospital owner Envision Healthcare Corp., said at an oversight hearing Wednesday that he had confidence in the progress Greater Southeast is making toward resolving the city’s concerns.
At Catania’s request, the council voted Tuesday to give the health committee the power to issue subpoenas for the company’s financial records and to allow the mayor to pursue putting the hospital into receivership, which would take control of it from Envision.
The committee will not use its new subpoena power as long as Envision keeps making a good-faith effort to meet improvement deadlines, Catania said.
“I think this facility has great staff, great location, great promise and great resources, if we all can just put our oars in the water,” Catania said.
He has accused Arizona-based Envision of mismanaging federal and city funds, and in June he convinced the council to take away an annual property tax break worth $1.2 million.
Comments from Examiner Readers
4:38 PM MST on Mon., Feb. 4, 2008 re: "New owners: Hospital is taking baby steps to improve conditions"
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3:39 AM MST on Mon., Oct. 29, 2007
re: "D.C. Council passes legislation for hospital"
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2:30 PM MST on Thu., Oct. 25, 2007
re: "D.C. hospital doles out $3.2M to executives"
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10:33 AM MST on Sun., Oct. 7, 2007
re: "Council backs hospital deal by using $79M from settlement"
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Examiner Reader said:
$16M and only $5m spent on new equipment. When the community members of SEDC are forced to seek care in other DC hospitals I wonder if Catania and Fenty will appreciate the fact that their hospitals will be congested with the sicker and less insured patients displaced by GSE's inadequate # of acute care beds. Creepy
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ANC Commissioner Sandra "S.S." Seegars said:
Councilmember David Catania has misled the Council on this deal, slandered one bidder, and failed to offer $79 M to the other bidders, which is contract steering. At a hearing, he had others to conspire with him as he ranted over 30 minutes, expelling vicious attacks on another bidder. Specialty plans for only 150 acute care beds – to serve Wards 6, 7, 8 and the adjacent PG County. The same 150 beds will have to serve the emergencies and scheduled treatments, the jail population, and psychiatric and obstetrics care. Approximately 300 beds will serve long term care patients. The hospitals that Specialty operates are not the acute care facilities needed east of the river; they are long term care facilities. The only thing that can stop this ill fated deal is the DC SHPDA. Specialty admitted to them that they could only get money from the DC government, they do not have a management company for the hospital’s acute care services, and they have no one to operate the psychiatric ward.
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Examiner Reader said:
Maybe Mr. Meyers should do some research before positioning the execs as theives. Calculate the # of hours worked versus salary and Mr. Meyers would see these execs are not making what it seems. The ratio is the equivalent to a pay cut. And remember these are EXECUTIVES - advanced degrees, specialized training, and a significant # of years of experience do count for something. Mr. Meyers, can you verify the source of funds that are currently keeping the hospital running? Or how much is done to keep the hospital running? To pay bills? To make sure the hospital is even up to code? Did you even TRY to uncover any of this information?? NO. You selectively chose to ignore any other facts and taint the image of those that run the facility. I believe that's called slander. Rather than relying solely on the information of a mole, you should have sought out multiple sources to provide a full picture of the real situation. I do believe they teach that in Journalism 101.
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Examiner Reader said:
What is happening to ensure the 130 or so patients in GSE right now are receiving safe error free care in the meantime?
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