Dear Neighbor,

Last Tuesday, I co-chaired a ten hour virtual hearing with Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie on two bills, one for the reconstruction of Howard University Hospital and the second bill for the construction of a new community hospital on the St. Elizabeths East campus.  Then, because the hearing went very well, the Committee on Health marked up the hospital bill on Wednesday, along with five other bills. The “New Hospital at St. Elizabeths Amendment Act of 2020” approves a proposed partnership with Universal Health Services to establish a new George Washington University Hospital and ambulatory pavilion at St. Elizabeths East in Ward 8. 

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of having a strong, citywide health system that provides high quality, integrated care to all District residents.  The legislation and accompanying agreements seek to transform our health care system by promoting equity in care, access, and outcomes through the establishment of a new, state of the art, 136-bed community hospital and ambulatory pavilion.  The new hospital will be integrated with the existing George Washington University Hospital with physicians, medical students, and research provided by the George Washington Medical Faculty Associates and George Washington University School of Medicine.

I want to highlight a few important issues that have been raised in the past, and cite the documents submitted to the Committee on Health and testimony provided at Tuesday’s hearing:

• The new hospital will provide comprehensive maternal health services, newborn deliveries and a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
• The hospital will have a verified trauma center that can serve over 85% of the trauma cases that arise in Wards 7 and 8.
• The hospital will also include specialty services that align with community health needs.
• The construction and ongoing operations of the new hospital require compliance with the District's Certified Business Enterprise (CBE) and First Source requirements.
• The new hospital will be required to apply for and receive a Certificate of Need (CON) from the State Health Planning and Development Agency.
• The legislation does not include any provision for the expansion of the existing George Washington University Hospital at Foggy Bottom.
• The agreements include a training program for existing United Medical Center (UMC) staff who wish to work at the new hospital to help ensure that existing UMC staff meet the credentialing and/or hiring standards of the new hospital. Staff who meet those standards and are interested in working at the new hospital will receive a hiring preference.
• Universal Health Services has committed to providing $75 million over 10 years in support of the new hospital and integrated health care system, including $21 million for two urgent care facilities, one in Ward 7 and one in Ward 8.
• United Medical Center will remain open until the new hospital is constructed and ready to receive patients.

We have been talking so much lately about how black lives matter.  Despite being less than 47 percent of the city’s population, approximately 75 percent of the residents who have died due to complications related to COVID-19 were African American.  We must end the racial divide in health care access in this city once and for all.  This new hospital will serve as the catalyst for an interconnected health care system of emergency care, urgent care, specialty care, ambulatory care, primary care, medical offices, independent physicians, and dentists for the 150,000 residents that live east of the Anacostia river and have never had a real health care system.   

The first vote on this legislation is this Tuesday, July 7^th and the second vote will likely be July 21^st.  I am asking you to call and/or write my colleagues and encourage them to approve this legislation without any amendments that could slow this project down or cause the deal to fall apart.  Click here for a directory of all Council members.

Also on Tuesday, the Council will cast the first of two votes on the District’s FY21 Budget.  Keep an eye on your e-mail because we may have to react and mobilize quickly, if changes are made by Committees that are averse to important Ward 7 priorities.  I’m still working to secure funding for other important Ward 7 priorities, while simultaneously advocating to ensure the funding we successfully added at the committee level stays in the budget.

COVID-19 UPDATE
 

As we continue to slowly reopen the District, I think we still have challenges ahead in how we safely reopen childcare, schools, and universities.  I intend to be laser-focused on this because I want to be sure we are protecting students, and families who have underlying health conditions that would make them more vulnerable to COVID-19, and that to the extent we do tele-school, that there is equitable access for lower-income families whose children are often on the wrong side of the digital divide.
 
Currently, there are 10,515 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the District, and, tragically, 561 deaths caused by COVID-19. African Americans still account for 77% of COVID-19 deaths in Washington, DC compared to about 46% of population.  Please continue to wear your face coverings and practice social distancing while out in public. 

ADVANCES IN TESTING
 

The District’s public testing sites were closed on Friday, July 3, and Saturday, July 4. Please see the schedule below for sites reopening on Monday, July 6.
 

DC residents can also now get antibody testing.  Antibody testing will allow you to know with a significant degree of certainty whether you have already had the coronavirus.  To make an appointment for COVID-19 testing or antibody testing, you can call the Testing Triage Center at 1 (855) 363-0333 Monday-Friday from 8:30am-4:30pm. 
 
In case you missed it, Ward 7 now has a new mobile testing site at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church.  To make an appointment, call (202) 865-2109. There is also walk-up testing available at all DC firehouses. Engine 30, at 50 49^th Street, NE, does testing on Thursday and Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.