Greater Southeast Comm Hosp

Greater Southeast Community Hospital, located at 1310 Southern Ave SE in Washington, DC, operated as a not-for-profit public hospital with 330 beds and a Level II trauma center, and did all sorts of things from basic checkups and primary care to lots of specialized surgeries and treatments, so folks could go in for an annual physical, see a doctor for high blood pressure or diabetes, or even get more advanced care for kidney disease, heart disease, or cancer. The hospital handled everything from ENT surgeries like middle ear operations and vocal cord treatments to big orthopedic procedures such as knee arthroscopy, spinal fusion, wrist and shoulder replacements, and even ankle replacements and appendix surgeries, and that's before mentioning all the cardiac work they did, like pacemaker implantations, cardiac catheterizations, and heart valve surgery, as well as all kinds of imaging tests and scans including CTs, MRIs, ultrasounds, X-rays, mammograms, and colonoscopies. Folks could go there for reproductive health help like hysterectomies, uterine ablation, pelvic floor repair, and even more complex things like vaginal prosthesis, or see someone about cancer diagnoses with prostate procedures and mammograms, as well as treatments for other conditions like hernias, epilepsy, plantar fasciitis, or postnasal drip. Families with children were able to use pediatric care, with a children's hospital area staffed by board-certified folks from Children's National Hospital, plus they ran labor and delivery for expectant mothers, making it the only place east of the Anacostia River for a while where babies were delivered, and they offered 24/7 pediatric emergency services, all while running clinics for asthma, COPD, depression, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis. The hospital had a team of doctors including Dr. Matthew Bernetich, Dr. Nicholas Scoulios, and Dr. Ziad Ghazzawi working in internal medicine, along with specialists in emergency care, palliative care, nephrology, cardiology, and psychiatry. For anyone needing rehab after a hospital stay, there was the Atlee Hill Skilled Nursing Rehabilitation Center right there, offering dietary, medical, therapy, and psychiatric support, and Fresenius Kidney Care managed both home and in-center dialysis on the campus. The hospital covered a lot of ground with rehabilitation, physical therapy, wellness checks, preventive care, vaccinations, and Covid-19 testing and education, plus community outreach and mental health awareness programs, and for folks who needed medicine, there was an on-site pharmacy and free parking for convenience. Greater Southeast changed hands quite a bit, starting out as Cafritz Memorial in 1966, then becoming Greater Southeast, later renamed United Medical Center after Specialty Hospitals of America took over in 2008, then shifting management again to Veritas in 2016 under a no-bid contract, and through the years people raised big concerns about management, system safety, billing issues, and staffing - there were fines for poor patient care, problems with equipment and nurse-patient ratios, reports of neglect, and even some tragic events in the nursing home and with newborn care that brought a lot of scrutiny. The State Board and District mayor appointed a special board to oversee things, but Greater Southeast had a tough run with bankruptcy, controversy, and change, until it finally closed on April 15, 2025 after Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center opened and took over hospital care for the area. They did keep a patient portal, price transparency policy, emergency services, virtual visits, interpreter services, and lots of general and specialty care until they closed, and, for many years, acted as a key public hospital for the southeast D.C. community.