The Joint Commission pulled the accreditation of Greater Southeast Community Hospital, Washington, on Dec. 7, a move that the hospital’s new owners and city officials said was neither unexpected nor a major obstacle for its planned overhaul and expansion.
Eric Rieseberg, president of Portsmouth, N.H.-based Specialty Hospitals of America, which acquired the troubled 303-bed hospital on Nov. 7, said that the company was aware of the problems even before the Joint Commission’s for-cause surveys in October. At the time, the hospital was owned and managed by Envision Hospital Corp., and had seen its accreditation yanked once before in 2003.
Rieseberg said that since acquiring the facility, the company has taken immediate steps to fix many of the Life Safety Code violations that were first identified and has undertaken other needed repairs. Still, he said that the hospital wouldn’t reapply for accreditation until the later half of next year.
Specialty Hospitals views city regulators and the Joint Commission as partners in its quality-improvement initiatives, Rieseberg said. “We have the same goals in mind,” he said. “Clearly, there’s no difference in opinion on what has to be done.” -- by Matthew DoBias
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