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City’s takeover of SE hospital is challenged

Parent firm says District illegally seized troubled United Medical Center

by Joe Stephens

The company that owns Ana-

costia’s only hospital blames the financial meltdown of United Medical Center on the District’s refusal to fully reimburse the fa- cility for patient care and city offi- cials’ decision to “divert” $25 mil- lion in hospital funding to other projects. Specialty Hospital of Washing-

ton denied in a filing in D.C. Su- perior Court on Tuesday that it had hidden financial problems from city officials, whom it con- tends unlawfully seized control of the hospital last month. The com- pany says Attorney General Peter Nickles chaired monthly meet- ings on hospital operations and knew the medical center, former- ly known as Greater Southeast Community Hospital, was in trouble. Last week, city officials asked the court to formally grant them control of the medical center, cit- ing mismanagement. Officials said Specialty painted a glowing portrait of the hospital’s financial operations while actually drain- ing resources. In recent months, the hospital allegedly quietly fell millions of dollars behind in pay- ing its taxes and electrical bills, failed to make payments to retire- ment plans and defaulted on em- ployee life insurance. Specialty fired back at the city in its court filing, saying there was no legal ground to sever its control of the medical center. “The District and Peter Nickles

have been fully aware of all op- erational and financial issues,” the company said. “Any financial difficulties that UMC is now ex-

periencing is a direct result of the District’s failure to pay attention, failure to listen and failure to meet its obligations to fund the cost of care of Medicaid patients.” Specialty said it told city offi- cials in December that it planned to write off $8 million in out- standing revenue as uncollect- ible, including $5 million it claims it was owed by the city and its vendors for Medicaid treat- ment. The city agreed to pay only 68 percent of the hospital’s Med- icaid expenses, instead of the 100 percent the company says it ex- pected.

Specialty said the city engi- neered the financial crisis to pressure the company to give the city a nursing care facility it ran independently within the hospi- tal complex, and which company executives estimated was worth at least $15 million. “It’s all about politics,” Special-

ty co-owner Jim Rappaport said in an interview. “It’s all about un- willingness to pay for the cost of care for those who use a safety- net hospital.” Specialty gained ownership of the hospital in 2007, under a deal engineered by D.C. Council mem- ber David A. Catania (I-At Large). The deal prevented closure of the facility — seen as critical for the health of city neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River — and called for Specialty’s managers to co-manage the hospital. The city has spent $100 million to modernize the facility in the past 21

⁄2 years, and officials said

Specialty led them to believe the long-troubled hospital had stabi- lized financially. But behind the scenes, city filings say, the hospi- tal had been losing about $1 mil- lion a month and had run up at least $20 million in debt. The District plans to operate the hospital until a new owner can be found.

stephensj@washpost.com

Funeral home faces closure in Riverdale

State finds ‘shameful’

Chambers crematorium

by Jacques Kelly

A Prince George’s County fu-

neral home has lost its license af- ter a state inspector discovered what appeared to be 40 bodies in- tended for cremation haphazard- ly piled in body bags stacked in its garage. The Maryland State Board of

Morticians & Funeral Directors summarily suspended the license of the Chambers Funeral Home & Crematorium in Riverdale on Monday. The emergency suspen- sion affects two morticians as well as the company’s business li- cense. “I saw the photos,” said Hari P.

Close, the state funeral board’s president. “It’s a rare situation, tasteless and shameful.” He said his findings have been sent to Gov. Martin O’Malley (D). Close said the funeral home was allowed to complete the cre- mation of the bodies at its facil- ities. It has until Friday to com- plete any other funeral arrange- ments and then will be closed. In late April, a state investiga- tor made an unannounced in- spection to check on “deficiencies noted at a previous inspection.” The inspector was reviewing a

refrigerated area located in a ga- rage structure that houses the crematory. The inspector noticed a “large pile, approximately 12 by 12 feet, of body bags containing human remains strewn on the floor of the garage in front of a re- moval van. There was visible leakage from the body bags as well as a pungent odor.” The inspector’s notes said an unnamed funeral home employ- ee said, “Don’t get upset about all the bodies in there.” William Chambers, one of the

pile of bodies at

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST

Zachary Wilson, 9, holds photos of his great uncle Lance Cpl. Clayton K. Hough Jr. during the ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Their war, in a way, never ended

Names of men who died recently of their Vietnam injuries are added to the Wall

by Michael E. Ruane

Taylor Pontin ran her right in-

dex finger over the name of her brother, William L. Taylor, which had just been sand-blasted into the polished black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Back and forth she moved her

finger, gently feeling the pristine gray letters etched in the surface of this most tactile of monuments. She smiled at the sensation, as if reaching her brother through the stone — “forever young, and strong and beautiful,” as another relative said Tuesday of the those newly enshrined on the nation’s memorial to the Vietnam war dead. The occasion was the addition to the Wall of the names of six more people wounded during the war who recently died of their in- juries. The event took place just days after the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the war. These were men for whom the

funeral home’s owners, said he would fight the license suspen- sion at a hearing at the end of the month. “We felt we handled things ap-

propriately, but the board felt dif- ferently,” he said Tuesday. “We have limited space, and things were in disarray. It was unaccept- able.” Chambers said many of the bodies awaiting cremation were cadavers from Georgetown Uni- versity’s School of Medicine. He said the school had a contract with his firm to remove and cre- mate the cadavers “at one time.” He said the practice led to numer- ous bodies arriving at his crema- torium simultaneously. “It was agreed to, but discour-

aged,” Chambers said of the prac- tice of bringing multiple cadavers to the crematorium. The state’s report quoted a let- ter from the medical facility, whose officials noted the large number of cadavers and stressed the need for dignity. “As you are accustomed to, we just want to reiterate that this re- moval, despite the large quantity of cadavers, should be handled in a respectful manner — both to the cadavers as well as faculty, students and staff that may be in the proximity of the removal,” the letter stated. The state’s findings also in-

dicated that identification of the bodies was lax. The investigator found that some identification tags were no longer attached to the body bags and “were loose in the pile.” The identification tags were found to be torn or wet, “causing the tags to become de- tached from the body bags and/or illegible.” The investigation quoted a co- owner of the funeral business, Thomas Chambers, on the issue of identification. Thomas Cham- bers reportedly said the identifi- cations could be made “by the process of elimination.”

— Baltimore Sun

war, in a way, never ended. The Pentagon ruled each one eligible for inclusion on the wall, which as of Tuesday bore 58,267 names, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which created the memorial. A total of 328 names have been added since the wall was dedicated in 1982. There was Taylor, “a native

Washingtonian,” his sister said, a graduate of Anacostia High School, and a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army. He was ter- ribly burned and riddled with shrapnel on Sept. 21, 1970. “He carried [the war] all his life,” his sister said. They were still picking shrap- nel out of him the week before he died last year at age 67 in a nurs- ing home in Tampa. There was Ronald M. Vivona, a

Marine who lost both legs after his platoon walked into an am- bush on Hill 700 at Khe Sanh on April 6, 1968. Vivona was felled by grenades and rifle fire. One bullet pierced the Marine Corps bulldog tattoo on his left arm, which, ever after, made the dog seem to be winking. Vivona died in 2008 at age 61 of hepatitis contracted from an old blood transfusion, his family said. “It’s kind of like an acknowledg-

Vivona Taylor

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2010

Miles

Granville

Hough Jr., 56, another Marine who lost both legs to a land mine in 1969 and died in 2004; and Mi- chael J. Morehouse, 55, an Army sergeant who was wounded in 1969 and died in 2004. Laura McGuffe said of her un-

After etching the newest name on the Wall, stone worker James Lee wipes down the area. Above is stone worker Kirk Bockman.

ment that in some ways he never came back,” an old friend, Ron Main, said of his inclusion on the Wall. There was Edward F. Miles, an

Army captain who stepped on a land mine near Cu Chi on April 26, 1969. He lost both legs, his right eye and the use of his right arm but later helped in the cru- sade against land mines. “Never complained,” his sister, Terry Jackson of Raleigh, N.C., said Tuesday. After the war, she said, he always had a nice car. “When he was driving a car he was just like everybody else,” she said. But he was not like everyone else. “Just to survive the initial hor- rendous injuries,” she said. “Then to live 35 more years and turn it around to help people.” When he died in 2004 at age 59, “we knew his name would be on the Wall. It

was just right.” The ceremony took place on a breezy spring morning — the blue sky and green grass a contrast to the black Wall. Five of the new names had been added over the past few days. The addition of Taylor’s was completed Tuesday. “The sun is rising on the faces of our fallen comrades,” Harry Robinson, a member of the me- morial fund’s board of directors, said in opening the ceremony. Relatives of five of the six men were on hand. They carried post- ers and folders bearing faded pho- tos and news clippings of the men and spoke in moving terms of their loved ones. In addition to Taylor, Miles and Vivona, the other additions were: John E. Granville, 58, a Marine who lost both legs in battle in 1968 and died in 2007; Clayton K.

cle “Kenny” Hough: “He returned from war half the man in body, and twice the man in spirit.” Chuck Groshong had a poster with old photos of his brother-in- law, John Granville. One showed a legless Granville sitting in a hospi- tal bed getting a medal from a general. “He’s a young man,” Groshong said. “He’s 19 at the time, I believe. You can still see the youth in his face. And the shock of his experience.”

Linda Vivona, who drove down

from New York for the ceremony, approached the podium in tears. “I cry a lot,” she said. Her hus- band’s name had been placed on the Wall near comrades who were killed the day he was wounded. “He loved the Marines. He loved his country. And he would be so, so proud to be on the Wall next to people that he fought with.” Terry Jackson read something her brother wrote about stepping on the land mine. He described being blown “10 feet into the air, where I revolved in a lazy circle and contemplated the deepest blue sky and most incandescent sunshine I’ve ever experienced.” “I am humbled in front of this

Wall,” she told the audience, “for those on it are forever young, and strong and beautiful and brave. May they rest in peace.”

ruanem@washpost.com

Efforts underway to improve Metro service, safety

metro from B1

You, too,could have home delivery.

1-800-753-POST

nor and Silver Spring and from five to six minutes between Shady Grove and White Flint and between Glenmont and Forest Glen. “What riders should feel is that the on-time performance for the Red Line should go up,” said Sarles, who added that he scruti- nizes reliability data for Metro every day. The pilot Red Line schedule adjustment, if successful, could be extended to other lines. Escalator and elevator troubles are another target, and Sarles said that within the month, he would bring in outside consul- tants for a fresh look at the opera- tions and accountability of the Metro department responsible for keeping the conveyances in good repair. Sarles said the move is a response to rider complaints. “It’s been a continuing issue with customers,” he said. On any given day, dozens of

SF Metro escalators are out of serv-

ice. It has been a constant source of frustration for passengers. Tuesday afternoon, about 68 of the system’s 588 escalators were listed on Metro’s Web site as be- ing out of service. In another effort to improve

service and transparency, Sarles said that next month, Metro will start releasing a monthly “score card” to publicize performance measures. He said he also seeks to fill in voids in the staff and stabilize Metro’s leadership after years of frequent reorganizations. “People have to know who is their boss,” he said.

Sarles reiterated that the safety

of Metro passengers and employ- ees is his No. 1 concern. Last week, Metro set out a schedule for implementing safety im- provements recommended by the FTA in the March audit, which called Metro’s safety department dysfunctional. Also Tuesday, the Tri-State Oversight Committee issued a 24- page formal response to the 11

findings in the FTA’s March audit. The committee outlined plans to strengthen its oversight through additional funding, staff and training.

Virginia, Maryland and the

District each agreed to provide the committee with $268,000 a year, starting in fiscal 2011, ac- cording to letters accompanying the response to the FTA, and each jurisdiction agreed to provide it with one full-time and one part- time employee. The committee’s lack of reg-

ulatory authority has been crit- icized by federal lawmakers. Safe- ty lapses and the lack of oversight at Metro, including the June 22 Red Line crash that killed nine people, prompted the White House to call for federal oversight of subway and light-rail systems nationwide. The oversight committee also

pledged to provide documenta- tion to the FTA to demonstrate that the committee is exercising its oversight responsibilities in- cluding taking a more aggressive

role in investigating accidents and enforcing safety standards and corrective actions. The committee’s response to

the FTA includes a list of tasks aimed at giving teeth to the or- ganization, and it includes such steps as requiring committee members to:  Communicate regularly with the Metro general manager and board of directors about compli- ance with the committee’s safety program.  Attend and participate in Met- ro events such as safety commit- tee meetings and emergency ex- ercises.  Track and monitor Metro’s in- vestigation of accidents. Moves to strengthen the over- sight committee could be fol- lowed in coming years by its be- ing phased out and replaced by a more rigorous oversight organi- zation, as proposed by Maryland, Virginia and District leaders in a white paper on Metro safety over- sight last month.

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