Long-awaited hospital opens Tuesday in Southeast DC's Ward 8

WASHINGTON (7News) — For the first time in 25 years, a new hospital is opening its doors in the District.

Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center is officially open in Ward 8 on Tuesday, bringing much-needed healthcare services to Southeast D.C.

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The new hospital replaces United Medical Center, which was Ward 8's only hospital, but it's closing on Tuesday after its maternal ward was shut down due to poor services.

City leaders said Cedar Hill will offer a much safer and more reliable experience for families in the community.

“We’ve created a new hospital, a new operation, and we believe a new culture of excellence,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said earlier this month.

Operated by GW Health, the facility is located at 1200 Pecan St. SE. When it opens, it will have about 300 employees. At full operation, it will have over 600, with 51 percent employed from the District.

“We are not picking up UMC and putting it at Cedar Hill, let me be completely clear about that,” Bowser said. “It’s a new building, it’s a new operator,r it’s a new set of staff. It’s an entirely different set of expectations. Not just that we picked up one and threw it over here.”

For more information on the new center, go here.