While participating in my daily 'google' of all things Congress Heights I came across a blog post by Nathan Harrington, a new Congress Heights resident. Nathan wrote about his experience at the   United Medical Center  here in Ward 8 formerly known as Greater Southeast Hospital. If you have a chance go HERE to read the post. It was a great  (and sometimes funny) read.

Three things struck me when reading the post:

1) That more and more people (including white people) are realizing the great benefits of living in Congress Heights and are making the move.

2) Access to quality and affordable healthcare affects us all regardless of race, profession or socio-economic status.

3) Good luck trying to get a cab to come to Southeast!

I myself have never visited United Medical Center (fingers crossed) but I had heard the rumors that in the past it wasn't the best hospital in the city but I had heard positive feedback that it had improved.  After reading this post it sounds like the hospital still has a long way to go. We in the community must demand more in terms of  healthcare options and services. Few things are more important than our health so we must be vigilant in maintaining high healthcare standards.

Blog Excerpt:
By God, I knew better. As a fairly regular reading of the Washington Post Metro section who pays special attention to matters involving east DC and Prince George’s County, I read the stories about Great South East’s bankruptcy, substandard care, and near constant influx of young black males with gunshot wounds. I knew all about that.


But I’d also moved to Congress Heights two months earlier and decided that all the fear, and hysteria and racism about Ward and “East of the River” was just that: fear, and hysteria and racism coming from people who had never dared to go there before. I moved with ease as the only white person in the neighborhood save my three housemates and other passing friends, never bothered, never molested, mugged, robbed or shot. I was friendly with the neighbors and, by the standards of east DC, the amenities were downright phenomenal: metro two- blocks away, Giant, I-HOP, hardware store, bank and Subway four blocks away, along with the usual plethora of carryout’s, liquor stores, check-cashing places, barbershops, and churches.

I was loving my new neighborhood, until I got sick. Really, really sick. It started out when I got home from my teaching job one Wednesday with dizziness, followed by numbness, nausea, lose of eye sight, vomiting, more dumbness, inability to form words, and a headache so violent it felt like I’d been shot in the head.

Even in my desperate and degraded state, I had not doubts about the neighborhood hospital. Something about one of the worst in the nation. But this was a capital-E emergency, God Damn it. I was having a stroke, an aneurism, a seizure, something majorly fucked up that I’d never had before, and I needed H-E-L-P. This is America. The nation’s capital, no less. How bad can it really be? All hospitals suck. Get your ass down, there, get a steroid injection or something, and go home to recuperate. Not big deal.

I have three housemates, only one of whom has a car or a driver’s license. Call a taxi. We don’t have a number. Look it up online. They seems confused about the address say they’ll be here within 20 minutes.

Half an hour later, still no cab. We can take the metro, only one stop away. I’ll never make it to the metro. Can’t barely walk. The bus! The bus to the hospital goes straight down our street! Let’s go! Call and cancel that taxi. Bring a barf bag.

To continue reading go HERE.
For more Congress Heights and River East news visit The Congress Heights Examiner website, http://www.examiner.com/x-13507-Congress-Heights-Community-Examiner


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