Updated Jan. 17, 2026 at 12:18 p.m.
The CEO of Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health is resigning effective March 13, less than a year after the hospital’s opening, a hospital spokesperson confirmed.
Anthony Coleman, who took the helm of the hospital during its construction in Southeast D.C. in 2023, will resign amid several managerial departures during the hospital’s inaugural year in operations, as the chief operating officer resigned just a month after its opening and the chief nursing officer stepped down earlier this year. Kimberlee Daniels, the chief operating officer at GW Hospital, will serve as interim CEO starting Jan. 26, hospital spokesperson Susan LaRosa confirmed.
“We are grateful for Tony’s leadership in opening Washington DC’s first new hospital in over 20 years, and we appreciate his commitment to improving the health status of Washingtonians,” LaRosa said in an email. “We wish him much success in his future endeavors.”
Coleman did not immediately return a request for comment on the reason for his resignation.
LaRosa said Coleman is leaving to pursue “another healthcare opportunity.”
The resignation comes in the wake of staffing concerns about the $434 million hospital, which District officials broke ground on in 2022 and opened in April, as Coleman told the Washington Post earlier this year that a shortage of nurses led to the hospital becoming overwhelmed by patients.
The hospital currently has 63 open positions, including director of nursing, manager of trauma services and over 20 nurses. The hospital also had yet to follow through on promised services like outpatient procedures as of November, the Washington Post reported.
Local government leaders raised concerns about staffing the hospital prior to its opening due to the financial turmoil of the Medical Faculty Associates, a network of physicians who teach at the School of Medicine & Health Sciences and service medical centers that has lost over $444 million, which Universal Health Services, GW Hospital’s owner and operator, tapped to staff the hospital.
In November, GW officials announced UHS would establish a new non-profit physician practice group to directly hire MFA employees to staff both GW Hospital and Cedar Hill if ongoing negotiations to end the University’s financial support for the medical enterprise succeed.
The hospital serves Wards 7 and 8, which have a majority Black population, have long faced health disparities due to a lack of quality health care centers. Residents of Ward 8’s life expectancy is 15 years lower than those of Ward 3, the area with the highest life expectancy at 87 years.
Coleman served as president and CEO from 2021 to 2023 of Broadlawns Medical Center, a community hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also served in the United States Navy from 1996 to 2016, holding several roles including as a naval officer and healthcare administrator.
This piece was updated to include comment from a hospital spokesperson.
