Greater Southeast Hospital

is discussed in many quarters, due to the offer from the Specialty Hospitals of America to buy the hospital--the company already owns Hadley Memorial Hospital and the long term nursing care facility at was once Capitol Hill Hospital. See "Southeast Hospital to Be Sold for $31 Million," from the Post.

(This is a very old article about the same subject "With demand booming, MedLink eyes expansion" from the Washington Business Journal. Likely it will clear the path for the Medlink site between Massachusetts Avenue, and 7th, 8th, and C Streets NE to be developed.)

In part, the latter facility drives this deal. They don't own the building, they have a term lease with a renewable period. By being able to absorb at least 25% of the beds in Greater Southeast Hospital for long term care, they solidify this revenue stream, get it into a wholly owned facility and provide at least one additional stable revenue stream to the Greater Southeast facility.

It's the same concept as multiple revenue streams to make marginally unviable retail concepts work, i.e., adding cafe service to a bookstore.

The focus on hospitals vs. issues of health

The newspapers are full of articles about the debacles at both Prince George's County Hospital and Greater Southeast Hospital in DC. And there was the fight over creating a new Howard University Hospital in Ward 6. At that time many argued that there was a big difference between hospital planning and health and wellness planning.

See today's Post editorial about Greater Southeast: "Hospital in a Tailspin," subtitled "The mayor is concerned, but that won't solve the problem." And this piece about PG County Hospital: "A Bitter Pill For County Liaison to Hospitals."

Neal Peirce's column this Sunday is about regional planning in Boston. The column makes this point:

There's something wrong with this picture, notes Kahn: "We aren't aligning health spending with the actual determinants of health -- 50 percent of which are all about lifestyles and another 20 percent the environment, including exposure to toxins and only 10 percent access to doctors, clinics and hospitals.

Free bike "rental" program in Tulsa

The "Bikes for health: Free to ride" article in the Tulsa World discusses a free bike rental system being created by a local health foundation to help promote exercise and active, healthy living.

ROBERT S. CROSS / Tulsa World. Pink bicycles on way. River Parks visitors will soon be able to use free bikes located at several sites as part of a program funded by the Warren Medical Research Foundation to encourage healthy lifestyles.

The Tulsa World also reported on a state-wide annual bicycle jaunt called Oklahoma FreeRide. It's similar, but on a much wider scale, to Arlington and Alexandria's recent bike ride covering 20+ miles on June 3rd. See "FreeWheel starts today."

Again, we need to do something like this in DC, at the neighborhood level, and city-wide, and maybe like the Oklahoma riders, we need to go into and touch various points in Maryland and Virginia while doing so.

Tulsa World file. Oklahoma FreeWheel 2006 riders take photos and ride past the “Welcome to Kansas” sign on the final day of FreeWheel in June 2006.

Tulsa World graphic.