For Alyce McFarland, Ward 8’s newest hospital presents opportunities she wished she had as: a mother who gave birth miles away from her home; a sister who recalled watching her sibling slowly die from undiagnosed liver cancer at Greater Southeast Community Hospital; and a godmother whose godson died on the way to Washington Hospital Center near North Capitol Street.
Even so, McFarland told The Informer that the degree to which staff members at the new hospital — Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health — understand and respect the surrounding community will make all the difference.
“I want for them to listen to the people, for it to be open, and for [the hospital] to be productive, and state of the art, because that’s what we deserve and that’s what we need,” said McFarland, a former advisory neighborhood commissioner and lifelong Ward 8 resident. “I just wanted to be effective, and have great response times, and I want it to do what it said it was going to do, as far as not only just the trauma center and the maternity ward, but also with the specialty.”
On April 10, McFarland counted among the several dozen who converged on the grounds of Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health— located at St. Elizabeths East Campus— in celebration of the full-service hospital’s opening.
Days later, the hospital officially opened with 136 beds that can expand to 184, trauma care, and a 54-bay emergency department.
As it relates to maternal health and delivery health services, Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health, has a six-bed well-baby nursery and Level II NICU. Other features include five operating rooms that can expand to seven, an ambulatory pavilion located near a main thoroughfare, 500-car parking garage, and helipad for emergency transport.
Much to McFarland’s relief, Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health also provides outpatient and specialty services, including dialysis, infusion, cardiac rehab, and physical therapy.
“My daughter suffers from migraines, and her neurologist is [at Children’s National Medical Center] in Lanham, Maryland, and the only other office he has is in Rockville,” she told The Informer. “So either way, I have to travel. Hopefully, my daughter will be able to see her neurologist here, and I don’t have to drive 45 minutes.
The Journey to a New East-of-the-River Hospital
Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center — D.C.’s first new hospital in 25 years — officially opened on April 15, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a block party taking place before the big day.
The April 10 ribbon-cutting ceremony at Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health proved to be a reunion of sorts, as community members, D.C. government officials, and past and current council members converged under a white umbrella, just feet away from the hospital entrance.
As colleagues pointed out, some of the former D.C. Council members in the space—like Vincent C. Gray and Sandy Allen—spent their tenure responding to healthcare gaps east of the Anacostia River and laying the foundation for Ward 8’s new hospital.
“It starts back to 2000,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “When Sandy Allen was in the thick of trying to keep that hospital [D.C. General] from closing and trying to ensure that [residents] had a public hospital and a hospital that was available for all citizens regardless of their ability to pay.”
As Mendelson recounted, the D.C. Council, following the closure of D.C. General, adopted a proposal to establish Greater Southeast Community Hospital, which would become the District’s only publicly funded hospital.
More than a decade later, after at least two bankruptcies, an unsuccessful private-sector acquisition, and a renaming to United Medical Center (UMC), the council pivoted toward the construction of a new hospital east of the Anacostia River. In 2018, the District’s deal with GW Health nearly came to a halt when the council, for a moment, struggled to determine what would become of UMC employees once Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health opened.
In the years before the 2019 vote to close UMC and launch Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health, the council, under the direction of Gray, then health committee chair, secured and preserved capital funds for the new hospital.
Community members living near UMC, meanwhile, continued to suffer as regulators forced the closure of the hospital’s obstetrics ward, the only of its kind in that part of the District.
Though Mendelson would go on to acknowledge Gray’s work and former D.C. City Administrator Rashad Young’s role as a negotiator with GW Health, he pointed out that Allen, then chair of the council’s Committee on Health, compelled her fellow council members to think about healthcare more communally.
“Thank you Sandy, for your work on that,” Mendelson said. “It was because of that commitment from council members that we wanted to continue to see…universal access to hospital care.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said just as much about Gray, her mayoral predecessor.
“You know Vince was mayor, chairman of the council, council member, director of human services and tireless advocate for health care in the District of Columbia,” Bowser said. “He also, and I’ll say this because we’re in budget season, protected $300 million in the budget for this hospital. His leadership and passion for this project never wavered. I told people that they’re going to thank the old mayor and the current mayor for getting us here.”
Patrons visiting Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health also have, within walking distance of the new hospital, the Whitman-Walker Max Robinson Center and CareFirst Arena, along with residences and townhomes that the Bowser administration heralds as part of a commitment to equitable development across the District.
The new full-service hospital’s launch follows that of Cedar Hill Urgent Care GW Health on Martin Luther King, Jr Avenue in Anacostia. It will be integrated with George Washington University Hospital and Universal Health Services (UHS)-supported health centers in Wards 7 and 8.
It also precedes what will be the 2027 launch of a 14-bed emergency department on the Fletcher Johnson Campus in Ward 7.
In her remarks, Bowser spoke about how she made a new hospital east of the Anacostia River as one of her first goals as D.C. mayor.
As she took guests down memory lane, Bowser acknowledged Human Services Director Wayne Turnage as one of her partners in delivering high-quality healthcare access to a community that had been without it for decades.
She also touted the public-private partnership with GW Health and UHS as the ideal arrangement that ensures the D.C. government supports a credible healthcare provider in their work.
“Sometimes when we cut ribbons and we’re open buildings and we deliver on the things that we promise, people think it just kind of happened,” Bowser said. “But I have to tell you, there is a complicated group of work and partnership that got us here today. And so this is a similar one. A fantastic public-private partnership.”
Reflections Abound as History Unfolds
While the launch of a full-service hospital east of the Anacostia River, for many, counts as an incredible feat, advocates say the District has a long way to go in bridging healthcare gaps that have plagued Ward 7 and 8 residents for decades.
Residents east of the Anacostia River experience considerably higher rates of cancer, maternal mortality and morbidity cases, opioid overdose fatalities, and gun violence deaths, compared to their counterparts in other wards.
In years past, residents east of the Anacostia River only had George Washington University Hospital, Howard University Hospital, MedStar Washington Washington Hospital Center, and Children’s National Medical Center—all of which are located west of North Capitol Street— as the only facilities in the District that could treat gunshots.
With the exception of a stabilization center on 35 K Street NE, options are few and far between for those experiencing substance use crises.
Demetrius Jones, a certified peer recovery specialist, said he’s anticipating what he called a boost to health outcomes and socioeconomic positioning once Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health opens to the community.
“It’s a great investment into Ward 8 and people east of the [Anacostia] river,” said Jones, who works at Nehemiah Project Respite Center in Ward 7. But, the most important part is to have access to health care. They also have access to violence interrupters, they have peer specialists on staff that are welcoming more people to come and sign up.”
Jones went on to say that GW’s reputation provides some relief for those skeptical about the new facility.
“They’re offering jobs in the community, [and] it is run by GW, which is a branded hospital in our community,” Jones told The Informer. “So overall, it’s about us being able to make people aware that they have a hospital in their community for them to be able to get checkups, and also for emergency care.”
Others who spoke at the April 10 hospital ribbon cutting included Turnage; D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At-Large); St. Elizabeths East Redevelopment executive director Latrena Owens; Ward 8 mother Marissa Rayford; and Dr. Anthony Coleman, CEO of Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center.
Henderson, the council’s health committee chair and maternal health advocate, expressed her excitement about the historic moment.
“This is going to be the first time since 2019 that a person will be able to give birth in an actual labor and delivery unit in a hospital east of Ward 7,” Henderson said. “I look forward to welcoming our first D.C. resident born here in a couple of weeks.”
Henderson, an at-large council member, also emphasized the bevy of non-emergency needs that can be fulfilled at Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center.
“Cedar Hill is going to have cardiology, it’s going to have neurology, cancer care, just all of the various things,” she said. “Having these specialties closer to home where folks don’t have to take a train or a bus or a rideshare service to get there is going to be so, so important.”
Hours before House Republicans passed a budget bill shifting Medicaid costs to the District and 50 states, Turnage remained confident that Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center would be able to meet its obligations under certain circumstances.
“It would be transformative what this hospital would do,” Turnage told The Informer. “The focus that we have going forward immediately is to protect the federal participation rate that we get from Congress and the president to make sure that we continue to get at least a 50% or 70% match on the expenses that we pay out of Medicaid — and in some cases, a 90% match for folks who receive the bond payment.”
Coleman, a Navy veteran and healthcare executive with experience in strategic planning, pledged to listen to community members as he gets settled in his new role. In his April 10 remarks, he reflected on the work ethic and appetite for change that he developed while on tours of duty.
Staff members at Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center, he said, have exhibited similar qualities in recent weeks.
“Many times staff have worked six, seven days a week, 12, 14 hours a days, coming back on Saturdays, coming back on Sundays,” Coleman said. “Staff members get into work because it was their desire and it’s our desire to serve this community and provide a hospital that we know to.”
For Rayford, the mother of a 2-year-old child, a new hospital near her stomping grounds saves time that she felt she didn’t have in the first place.
“I had to venture to Georgetown University Hospital for my maternity care due to lack of care in Ward 8,” Rayford told those who attended the ribbon cutting. “This was hectic at times due to traffic, distance, and freezing. I’m happy that future mothers, community members, will now have the opportunity to get that quality care close to their home and have this new state-of-the-art hospital here in Southeast D.C. equipped with a level two NICU facility.”
