A D.C. Superior Court judge yesterday denied the District’s request for a temporary restraining order to stop Providence Hospital from shutting down most of its services, the Washington Post reported. The city’s oldest continuously operating hospital, owned by Missouri-based Ascension, began reducing operations last Friday. The medical campus in Northeast Washington, D.C., serving some of the city’s neediest residents, ended outpatient services, closed its operating room and drastically scaled back acute and critical care. The city had claimed that the hospital failed to secure approval from regulators for its closure plans and that its move to shutter most of its operations had violated the terms of its operating license. The attorney general’s office filed the lawsuit after the closures began Friday, citing recently passed legislation that clarifies the city’s ability to challenge hospital closures. While the judge denied the city’s request for a temporary restraining order, the lawsuit is still pending. The hospital said it needed to close because it had been struggling financially and maintained that Washingtonians had enough options for acute care at other hospitals and facilities. In filings with the city, the hospital said it had lost $145 million over the past decade and cited a competitive market, declining patient volumes and aging facilities as factors. Read more.
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