Mayor Muriel Bowser announced in a release Thursday that the first full-service hospital to come to D.C. in more than two decades — which will be staffed by the Medical Faculty Associates — will open April 15. 

The $434 million Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health will serve residents primarily in Wards 7 and 8 in Southeast D.C. as a replacement for United Medical Center, which will close when the new hospital opens. Universal Health Services, which also owns the Foggy Bottom GW Hospital, will operate the hospital and invest $75 million dollars in health care infrastructure in Wards 7 and 8.

“The new hospital, and the system of care it is part of, are all part of one shared goal: improving health outcomes for DC residents,” Bowser said in the release. 

The MFA signed a deal with hospital and District officials in 2021 to provide 160 clinicians to the new hospital, but city officials and the MFA are renegotiating due to the practice’s recent financial losses, which totaled $107 million in FY2024. 

Community members including D.C. Council members have raised concerns in recent months about the MFA’s ability to staff the hospital due to its financial situation and the ability of the hospital to built relationships with local community healthcare providers.  

Bowser and city officials began construction on Cedar Hill hospital in February 2022 and finished a “critical” portion of the hospital in June 2023 to service Congress Heights in Southeast D.C., which is majority Black and has long lacked access to maternal healthcare infrastructure, which the new center will provide.  

D.C. officials have said the city will cover any losses the hospital incurs up to $25 million in the first 10 years of the hospital’s operation.

LaQuandra Nesbitt, the former director of DC Health and the bicentennial-endowed professor in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, will lead planning and implementation of clinical, education and research programs at the Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center.