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At PG Hospital, Employees Wait to Learn Their Fate
By SHARAHN D. BOYKIN
Capital News Service
Friday, April 13, 2007
CHEVERLY - Sandra Powell was born at Prince George's Hospital Center. So were her four siblings and her two children. And each day since 1973, she has gone to Prince George's Hospital to work as well.
"Everybody knows everybody, and of course with the years I've been here you know it's like a family," Powell said.
But now, the 49-year-old mother of two teenagers is facing the prospect of having to find another job. One of 1,800 employees who works at the financially-troubled hospital, Powell is waiting anxiously to find out next week whether years of last chances for the hospital to find its way out of financial difficulty will come to an end and the hospital's board will order it closed.
"When I heard that they were thinking about closing this hospital I was devastated," Powell said. "I couldn't believe it."
Talks between county and state officials aimed at keeping the 279-bed hospital open are still taking place. The stakes are high - not only for employees like Powell, but for the entire health care system in suburban Washington and Southern Maryland, of which the county-owned hospital and its affiliated facilities are a major part.
Some 180,000 patients use the hospital system each year. Prince George's Hospital is the regional trauma center for Southern Maryland, and the only hospital in the region with a neonatal intensive care unit equipped to take care of premature babies and infants with life threatening conditions.
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