D.C. officials say they’re making progress in talks with Howard University to build a new hospital in Southeast, even though at least two D.C. Council members are questioning whether the project has taken a back seat to plans to construct a Major League Baseball stadium.
Officials are negotiating to build in Southeast a 200- to 300-bed hospital with Howard University to be called the National Capital Medical Center.
“Baseball in no way is hindering the progress of the Howard University negotiations,” said Tara Dunlop, special assistant for D.C. City Administrator Robert C. Bobb. “The projects are on separate courses so they really don’t relate to one another.”
But council member Jim Graham said he doesn’t “have the impression that [the new hospital] is a front-burner issue” for Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ administration, adding that “it’s kind of vanished” in the past year.
Mr. Graham, Ward 1 Democrat, said he had concerns over whether the hospital project is suffering as the Williams administration focuses its lobbying efforts to persuade council members and the community to support a proposal to build a new ballpark in Southeast.
“Very little seems to have been done on this,” council member Adrian M. Fenty, Ward 4 Democrat, said of the hospital project.
Howard University spokeswoman Jennifer James-Pryor yesterday said school officials are “pleased with the progress” of its ongoing talks with the city.
The hospital plans call for construction of a new facility at the site of D.C. General Hospital, which city officials closed over the objections of the D.C. Council in 2001.
Since then, hospital officials in the city and in Prince George’s County say they have had a hard time caring for an increasing number of patients seeking emergency room treatment.
Meanwhile, city officials have noted that the D.C. Healthcare Alliance plan, which the city created after D.C. General’s closure, has helped to cover health care costs for thousands of uninsured residents.
The D.C. Council passed legislation in November 2003 aimed at building a new hospital on the D.C. General campus, citing a lack of health services in Southeast due to the closing of D.C. General and financial management problems at Greater Southeast Community in Ward 8.
Concerns about the pace of negotiations surfaced last week, when Mr. Graham questioned the city’s commitment to the project during a confirmation hearing for Dr. Gregg Pane, the acting director of the D.C. Department of Health.
“I have an uneasy feeling that the [hospital project] was a kind of a charade, a kind of window dressing … that it didn’t have any meat on the bones,” Mr. Graham told Dr. Pane.
In an interview later, Dr. Pane said he has taken part in hospital talks since he started his job last month and the project is still high on city officials’ list of priorities.
“It’s a big project and it’ll be with us for years to come,” he said.
Neither Howard University nor D.C. officials yesterday would disclose information about financing the project, but knowledgeable city sources said the price tag for the new facility will probably be more than $200 million.
Ms. Dunlop said Mr. Bobb last month sent Howard University Chief Financial Officer Hassan Minor requests for information so that city officials can complete a financial analysis of the proposed project.
Last week, Mr. Bobb also told council member David A. Catania, at-large independent, that he planned to have project cost estimates in place in time for the 2006 city budget.
Mr. Bobb said city officials do not want the hospital to be used only by poor people and that city officials have no intention of managing the facility.
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