Sept. 6, 2002
A Moving Day for GW Hospital
Patients Take a Short Trip Across the Street to New
Facility
By Thomas
Kohout
Crowds of doctors, nurses, and medical workers
lining the lobby of the new GW Hospital unleashed raucous applause as
Floyd Godfrey was wheeled through the front doors Aug. 23. Godfrey,
a 59-year-old from Alexandria, VA, recovering from an acute gout attack,
became the first patient of the new facility, officially launching a
new era of medical care in Foggy Bottom.
“I thought “Hey, this is a pretty nice,’” says Godfrey
about the opportunity to be the first patient in the new hospital. We
don’t often get a chance to make history. [The facility] is absolutely
perfect, people have been telling me about this for the last couple
of weeks, but I couldn’t imagine how nice it actually is.”
Once Godfrey was checked in, 161 other patients made the transfer from
one facility to the next down a long, air conditioned tent spanning
23rd Street. The migration of patients began after 9:45 pm, so as to
minimize any traffic congestion incurred by closing down the last block
of the street before Washington Circle, and finished at 3:30 am Saturday,
without incident.
Later that night, the first baby was born at 12:51 am. Genesis Ann Palmer
weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and measured 19 1/2 long. Her parents Gerald and
Marquita Palmer received a gift of 10 shares of stock in Universal Health
Services, Inc. the healthcare management company that built the $96
million hospital.
“People are getting used to doing business in this new setting,”
says Dr. John “Skip” Williams, MD, EdD, vice president for
health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
“An era is over, now we’re moving forward.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
