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The hospital situation east of the river has been in dire shape, with both financial and infrastructure problems plaguing the United Medical Center over the years. Now, the Board of Directors has taken a significant step toward replacing the building.

The board voted to approve a site selection study to build a new hospital east of the Anacostia River. The plan is to make a decision by the end of the month and begin work on the site studies by August.

“This vote by the UMC Board is a positive indication that its members share my vision for a new, more efficient health care delivery system that will further our efforts in improving the health outcomes throughout the District,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a release.

Once called the Greater Southeast Community Hospital, D.C. bought the struggling facility at auction (there were no other bidders) for $20 million in 2010. Amid plans for Howard and a partner to take over operations, then-Mayor Vincent Gray proposed replacing the hospital in 2014, but neither plan took off.

Now fifty years old, the building is “approaching obsolescence,” the administration said in a release. “The execution of a site selection study is a necessary first step in the planning and design phase of a new hospital. The Board’s vote today supports Mayor Bowser’s commitment to ensuring that the residents of Wards 7 and 8 will have access to a full range of quality acute care hospital services.”