D.C. General Hospital’s former emergency room reopened May 4 as an "urgent care center" to provide walk-in treatment of minor injuries and illnesses that are not life-threatening.

The medical center is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and holidays.

City officials said an ambulance will be stationed at the D.C. General campus, 1900 Massachusetts Ave. SE, around the clock for six months to provide transport for any critically injured persons who arrive there without knowing that the emergency room is closed.

Emergency room services at the closed public hospital were discontinued on May 2, due in part to the financial problems of Greater Southeast Community Hospital.

Greater Southeast, which is currently under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is the lead contractor in an alliance of medical providers that took over providing health care for the city’s poor two years ago.

Copyright 2003, The Common Denominator