At last week’s ANC 5A meeting on August 1, Ruth Pollard, Chief Strategy Officer at Providence Hospital, provided a little more information about the hosptial’s press release that stated the hospital is ending acute care services by December 2018. Acute care include inpatient care and emergency care, so Providence will be closing its emergency room by December 2018. Providence plans to continue outpatient care for the remaining services that it offers. Recall that Providence has ceased providing several areas of care. The Carroll Manor skilled nursing facility will remain on the Providence campus and will likely become part of Ascension Living. The retired priest campus will likely move. Ms. Pollard said the retired priest campus will likely move in the future.

With respect to the health village concept floated by Providence last year, Ms. Pollard said the hospital has decided to “pause” solicitation for health village concepts. Ms. Pollard made it a point to say Providence will always have a “presence” in Ward 5 and the District. They just are not sharing what that presence looks like, and maybe they really do not know what that presence looks like at this point. Ms. Pollard talked a lot about social determinants and working to keep people healthy rather than just focusing on serving people once they become actutely ill.

Given that the mission of the hospital is to serve the poor and vulnerable, it is still unclear how all of these changes align with that mission. Ms. Pollard noted that there are other nearby hospital networks that people can use, specifically mentioning MedStar Washington Hospital Center and Children’s Medical. She made it a point to say that most nearby residents do not utilize the hospital. Ms. Pollard did mention that the hospital is looking at opportunities to provide services in Wards 7 and 8. According to Ms. Pollard, the hospital draws the highest number of its patients from Wards 4, 5, and 7. District officials have been working to open a hospital to serve residents in Wards 7 and 8.  So it sounded like Providence is exploring maybe being part of that endeavor. It is all still very unclear.

Because Providence has not been super transparent or forthcoming about what it is doing, there are lots of rumors floating around. The hospital now has a very short set of FAQs relating to its restructing on its website. It does not answer a whole lot, but it is a start. Hopefully the hospital will see value in adding more meaningful updates in the future.