A building on St. Elizabeths East Campus. (Photo by Elvert Barnes)

Mayor Muriel Bowser announced today that the city will partner with George Washington University on a new hospital at St. Elizabeths, a sprawling old psychiatric campus with a troubled past that today houses a smaller psychiatric hospital and is slated for major redevelopment.

This hospital will replace the beleaguered United Medical Center hospital in Southeast that’s been plagued in the last year year by questions of serious mismanagement. The new hospital is meant to serve residents of Wards 7 and 8, who have long lacked high-quality, comprehensive hospital services.

Plans to replace UMC have been floated for years and Bowser announced plans for the new hospital last September, but the city had yet to find a partner in running the new facility.

“While the D.C. government plays a critical role in regulating the delivery of health care to ensure quality and protect patients, the government is not well-suited to be in the business of operating hospitals,” Bowser wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published Friday.

The GWU-run facility will have between 100-125 beds available and a non-high-risk obstetrics ward, a badly needed resource in Wards 7 and 8 since UMC closed down its maternity ward about a year ago, after serious medical errors by hospital staff endangered patients there.

There may also be additional medical services, like ambulatory surgery facilities, urgent care, and medical offices, according to the letter of intent signed today by Mayor Bowser and GWU. Some services, including primary care providers and “other population health initiatives,” may be held at smaller medical sites across Wards 7 and 8.

Bowser said the new medical facility is meant to address serious disparities in health outcomes across the District. Low-income residents and people of color in D.C. have higher maternal and infant mortality rates and other disproportionate negative health outcomes, including higher rates of infection with HIV, asthma, diabetes, and heart disease.

The letter of intent is the first step in the public-private partnership; in her announcement Friday, Bowser said the city will now enter into “exclusive negotiations” with GWU to finalize the terms of the agreement.

The letter of intent says the parties hope to finalize an agreement outlining the specific obligations of each part by December 31, 2018—the D.C. Council will have to sign off on this agreement. The goal, according to the letter, is to open the new hospital in 2023.