Whitman-Walker Clinic
Encyclopedia
Whitman-Walker Health (formerly Whitman-Walker Clinic), is the largest nongovernmental HIV
/AIDS
health care organization in the Washington, D.C.
metropolitan area. It has historically served a primarily LGBT
clientele. Founded as a health center for the gay and lesbian community in 1978, Whitman-Walker was one of the first responders to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in DC and became a leader in HIV/AIDS education, prevention, diagnosis and treatment. In recent years, Whitman-Walker has expanded its services to include health care services for the entire community regardless of HIV status, sexual orientation or gender identity.
WWH is named for gay
poet Walt Whitman
(a former D.C. resident) and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker
, a noted Civil War
-era physician in the District and women's rights
activist.
, including primary medical care, HIV/AIDS primary care, dental care, mental health services, legal help, medical adherence services and a pharmacy. Its main facility is the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center located at 1701 14th Street
, NW in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. WWH also operates the Max Robinson
Center in the primarily African American
and poor Anacostia
neighborhood in Southeast D.C.
Whitman-Walker Health produces the annual D.C. AIDS Walk
(held in October).
became the clinic's president.
and the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation were the Clinic's primary financial supporters, although individual contributions from the local GLBTQ community made up about half the organization's income.
Whitman-Walker faced its first financial crisis in 1986. The rising cost of health insurance
for its staff and physicians, coupled with very high insurance premiums for those involved HIV/AIDS work, threatened to force the clinic to close when it could not purchase insurance. The D.C. City Council
attempted to pass legislation adding the Clinic's staff to the city health insurance plan, but the bill died. The Clinic eventually found insurance, however.
WWC soon began to expand again. In 1987, Whitman-Walker opened its first dental clinic
for patients with HIV and AIDS. Its staff expanded to 34, it opened its first food bank
, and it hired its first full-time lawyer to provide clients with legal services related to AIDS discrimination. But in 1988, as Whitman-Walker expanded its services throughout the D.C. metropolitan region, it encountered significant resistance and setbacks. WWC initiated its Northern Virginia
AIDS Project in 1987. But the Clinic was unable to find space for its operations for some time. In one case, the Clinic was denied housing by a landlord who allegedly did so out of fear and/or homophobia
. The landlord claimed the Clinic had not met certain leasing and payment requirements, and a judge agreed. WWC eventually found other space and built the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia.
funds in 1991, helping to reinforce the Clinic's finances. The same year, First Lady
Barbara Bush
made a highly publicized visit to the clinic, opening its Bill Austin Day Treatment Center.
In 1992, Whitman-Walker Clinic opened its Max Robinson Center in Southeast D.C. and the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Southern Maryland. The Clinic's expansion efforts, however, caused conflict with some other service groups. For example, in 1993 WWC applied for a million-dollar HIV/AIDS grant from the District of Columbia. WWC competed for the grant against a coalition of primarily African American service and outreach groups. The Clinic won the grant, angering some community leaders and activists who felt the city had discriminated against black organizations in favor of the white-led Clinic. Local community leaders also opposed the Clinic's expanding housing program, fearing for the health and safety of their communities.
Whitman-Walker Clinic also adopted oral testing for HIV
in 1993 before most major AIDS clinics in the U.S. The following year, WWC built the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center, named in honor of actress and AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor
. The building's opening ceremony was attended by Taylor and pop singer
Michael Jackson
.
In 1995, the Clinic established a program under which patients could sell their life insurance
policies to the organization in exchange for an annuity
. Critics claimed that Whitman-Walker would benefit only if its patients died, making this a conflict of interest. Its 1997 AIDS Walk was its most profitable ever, with about 25,000 people helping to raise $1.7 million.
. The Clinic's Board of Directors initially refused to fire the physician, but was forced to do so a month later after public outcry.
Long-time WWC director Jim Graham departed the Clinic in 1999 to run (successfully) for the D.C. City Council. Since then, the organization has had significant turnover among its leadership. Graham's replacement was Cornelius Baker, an HIV-positive civil rights and HIV activist. But only a year into Baker's tenure, WWC announced it was suffering from significant financial problems, which led to the closure of several programs and facilities. The District of Columbia is heavily reliant on Whitman-Walker Clinic to provide a significant amount of its HIV/AIDS testing and outpatient treatment. Clinic officials blamed the financial crisis on the District's exceedingly high per-capita rate of HIV and AIDS, the collapse of several major fund-raising ventures (including the bankruptcy of the AIDS Ride and much reduced attendance at the AIDS Walk), rising meth
addiction (which often leads to higher incidents of HIV infection), and overdependence on government grants and funding rather than private insurance. To combat these financial trends, the Clinic began charging for some services in 2003. But the changes did not help. Baker resigned as executive director of Whitman-Walker Clinic in December 2004, telling the Washington Blade that the Clinic's financial difficulties had negatively impacted his health and citing other personal reasons for leaving.
The search for Baker's replacement was a lengthy and difficult one. During the search process, Whitman-Walker continued to hemorrhage money. The Clinic sold a Northern Virginia group home for AIDS patients, shuttered the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Southern Maryland, closed several substance abuse programs, and shut its food bank. In May 2005, the District of Columbia government announced that the Clinic had overcharged the city $2 million for services. Rather than risk its government funding, the Clinic was forced to immediately repay the money, creating severe financial pressures. Staff were not paid for a month, and layoffs and program cuts occurred in August. Liquidity issues became so severe that WWC warned the public that it might close. The City Council quickly passed legislation speeding up city payments to the Clinic (which had lagged during the city's own financial crisis), and awarding new emergency grants to the organization to keep it afloat. The surge in funds going toward Whitman-Walker deeply angered many other AIDS and minority groups, who felt the Clinic was being rewarded for its mismanagement simply because it was "too big to fail." The Clinic continued to make changes and cuts throughout 2006. Accused of having an unwieldy, over-sized Board of Directors, the Clinic reduced the size of its board, laid off staff, and restructured lines of authority. In January 2006, Whitman-Walker announced a turnaround plan to refocus its work away from solely providing care to people with HIV and AIDS and adding health care services unrelated to HIV/AIDS. The plan would also focus on providing health care to entire families rather than just individuals.
On March 13, 2006, the Whitman-Walker Clinic Board of Directors announced it was hiring Donald Blanchon to take over as chief executive officer on May 1. Blanchon was formerly chief executive officer of Maryland Physicians Care (a managed care health plan in Maryland
) and vice president for Medicaid and Medicare programs at Schaller Anderson (a medical management firm). Blanchon quickly announced his support for the Board's turnaround plan. A week later, Whitman-Walker Clinic announced it would sell its two properties on 14th Street and the Max Robinson Center in Anacostia and seek to build new, larger medical treatment facilities in the two respective areas by 2009. These actions were intended to stabilize the Clinic's financial condition. But just four months later, Blanchon fired two long-time leaders of Whitman-Walker Clinic, leading to renewed concerns that the Clinic's financial and personnel issues had not been resolved. On January 11, 2008, Blanchon said the Clinic had almost completed its transformation into a primary care medical organization. WWC hired Dr. Raymond Martins, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine
as its new chief medical officer, purchased and installed a state-of-the-art computerized patient record-keeping system, and outsourced
its financial management department. Although Whitman-Walker also laid off an unspecified number of employees due to the outsourcing, Blanchon said the Clinic was still the area's largest provider of HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment. The Clinic also said it was suspending plans to sell all of its existing buildings in order to finance a new, high-rise medical center. WWC announced in January 2008 that it would receive funding from the D.C. Primary Care Association which would enable it to keep its buildings on 14th Street NW. The Clinic said the tentative funding agreement would shutter the Max Robinson Center in Ward 8 and open a new, larger facility in Ward 7.
Few of Blanchon's plans came to fruition. In June 2008, the Clinic sold its long-time headquarters at 1407 S Street NW to The JBG Cos. for $8 million and moved its administrative staff into the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center on 14th Street NW. The Clinic, whose operating budget had fallen 17 percent since 2007 to just $20 million a year, cited $5 million in debts stemming from mortgages on its existing buildings. The Clinic closed its on-site laboratory and closed the last of its food banks. The October 2008 AIDS Walk was the Clinic's most successful in several years, however, raising $700,000. By year's end, the clinic had served about 10,000 patients, of whom 3,400 were HIV-positive. Nonetheless, WWC's finances continued to worsen. Government reimbursements for medical care had not kept pace with inflation, donations had dropped by 29 percent, sales of medical services had decreased, and the number of patients without insurance had risen. To cope with these problems, WWC closed the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia (which still served more than 1,100 patients), closed its residential addiction treatment center, and laid off 45 employees. WWC also outsourced its pharmacy operations to Maxor National Pharmacy Services Corporation (a privately-held, for-profit pharmacy management company based in Amarillo, Texas
), and closed its mental health telephone hotline. WWC staff were devastated at the news. "I thought that once we got the[S Street] building sold, we'd be stable," Patricia Hawkins, a former associate executive director of the Clinic, said.
Whitman-Walker Clinic's continuing financial difficulties led to political problems for the organization in 2009. D.C. Councilman David Catania
blasted Blanchon and the Clinic's senior staff of "gross negligence and malfeasance" at a public forum in January 2009. He specifically accused WWC of closing facilities in Maryland and Virginia without seeking financial assistance from public health authorities, an accusation some laid-off staff echoed. He also questioned why WWC would reduce staff at the still-unsold Max Robinson Center when that part of the city is suffering hardest from the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Catania also accused the Clinic of an anti-gay bias for laying off three lesbian senior managers, and of abandoning its ties to the city's GLBTQ community. Former staff members agreed. "Mr. Blanchon has a whole different vision for what the clinic should be, and those of us in the GLBT community are heartbroken," a former WWC associate executive director told the press.
The WWC Board of Directors requested that the law firm of Arnold & Porter
and contractor Huron Consulting Group
conduct an audit to review Catania's charges. Although the audit did not appear to substantiate Catania's charges, Catania accused Arnold & Porter of a conflict of interest
because James J. Sandman, chairman of Whitman-Walker's board, was formerly employed by the firm. Blanchon strongly denied all the accusations.
The D.C. Council Committee on Health, which Catania chairs, set a hearing on the issues for April 27, 2009. On March 24 and April 20, Whitman-Walker turned over 2,000 documents to Catania for additional review. Council member Jim Graham, who led the clinic from 1984 to 1999, supported the decision to hold hearings. Sandman, now chief counsel for the D.C. public school system, resigned rather than testify before the D.C. Council.
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
/AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
health care organization in the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
metropolitan area. It has historically served a primarily LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
clientele. Founded as a health center for the gay and lesbian community in 1978, Whitman-Walker was one of the first responders to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in DC and became a leader in HIV/AIDS education, prevention, diagnosis and treatment. In recent years, Whitman-Walker has expanded its services to include health care services for the entire community regardless of HIV status, sexual orientation or gender identity.
WWH is named for gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
poet Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
(a former D.C. resident) and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker
Mary Edwards Walker
Mary Edwards Walker was an American feminist, abolitionist, prohibitionist, alleged spy, prisoner of war and surgeon. She is the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor....
, a noted Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
-era physician in the District and women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
activist.
Operations
Whitman-Walker Health provides a number of health care services to the D.C. metro areaWashington Metropolitan Area
The Washington Metropolitan Area is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The area includes all of the federal district and parts of the U.S...
, including primary medical care, HIV/AIDS primary care, dental care, mental health services, legal help, medical adherence services and a pharmacy. Its main facility is the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center located at 1701 14th Street
14th Street Northwest and Southwest (Washington, D.C.)
Fourteenth Street is a street in Northwest and Southwest Washington, D.C., located 1¼ mi. west of the U.S. Capitol. It runs from the 14th Street Bridge north to Eastern Avenue....
, NW in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. WWH also operates the Max Robinson
Max Robinson
Max Robinson was an American broadcast journalist, and ABC News World News Tonight co-anchor. He was the first African American broadcast network news anchor in the United States and one of the first television journalists to die of AIDS...
Center in the primarily African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
and poor Anacostia
Anacostia
Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Its historic downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue It is the most famous neighborhood in the Southeast quadrant of Washington, located east of the Anacostia River, after which the...
neighborhood in Southeast D.C.
Whitman-Walker Health produces the annual D.C. AIDS Walk
AIDS Walk
AIDS Walk is a walkathon fundraiser that raises money to combat the AIDS epidemic. The funds raised from AIDS Walks usually benefit a local AIDS service organization , which provide services and advocacy for local community residents who are infected with HIV...
(held in October).
1970s
Whitman-Walker was founded in November 1973 as the Gay Men's VD Clinic, part of the Washington Free Clinic. In 1976, it split off as an independent organization and hired its first full-time staff. The Clinic was chartered by the government of the District of Columbia on January 13, 1978. In 1981, Jim GrahamJim Graham
Jim Graham is a U.S. politician and a member of the Council of the District of Columbia. He is a Democrat representing Ward 1 - the most populated and diverse area in Washington, D.C....
became the clinic's president.
1980s
In 1983, WWC launched its AIDS Education Fund to provide information and counseling to people with AIDS, an AIDS information hotline, and an HIV/AIDS prevention advertising campaign. In 1984, WWC opened its AIDS Evaluation Unit, the first gay, community-based medical unit in the nation devoted exclusively to diagnosing and evaluating patients suspected of suffering from AIDS. WWC opened its first housing unit for patients with AIDS in 1985, to provide destitute, homeless patients with a place to live while receiving treatment. The AIDS treatment center expanded rapidly, and became a full-time clinic in 1986 recognized throughout the region for its cutting-edge and comprehensive HIV and AIDS treatment. It also purchased a new building, located at 1407 S Street, NW (formerly the Evelyn Towers Apartments), for $1.25 million—a facility which would operate as the organization's headquarters for more than two decades. At this time, D.C. Mayor Marion BarryMarion Barry
Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who is currently serving as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, representing DC's Ward 8. Barry served as the second elected mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995...
and the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation were the Clinic's primary financial supporters, although individual contributions from the local GLBTQ community made up about half the organization's income.
Whitman-Walker faced its first financial crisis in 1986. The rising cost of health insurance
Health insurance in the United States
The term health insurance is commonly used in the United States to describe any program that helps pay for medical expenses, whether through privately purchased insurance, social insurance or a non-insurance social welfare program funded by the government...
for its staff and physicians, coupled with very high insurance premiums for those involved HIV/AIDS work, threatened to force the clinic to close when it could not purchase insurance. The D.C. City Council
Council of the District of Columbia
The Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of the local government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the District is not part of any U.S. state and is instead overseen directly by the federal government...
attempted to pass legislation adding the Clinic's staff to the city health insurance plan, but the bill died. The Clinic eventually found insurance, however.
WWC soon began to expand again. In 1987, Whitman-Walker opened its first dental clinic
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...
for patients with HIV and AIDS. Its staff expanded to 34, it opened its first food bank
Food bank
A food bank or foodbank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes mostly donated food to a wide variety of agencies that in turn feed the hungry. The largest sources of food are for-profit growers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers who in the normal course of business have...
, and it hired its first full-time lawyer to provide clients with legal services related to AIDS discrimination. But in 1988, as Whitman-Walker expanded its services throughout the D.C. metropolitan region, it encountered significant resistance and setbacks. WWC initiated its Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...
AIDS Project in 1987. But the Clinic was unable to find space for its operations for some time. In one case, the Clinic was denied housing by a landlord who allegedly did so out of fear and/or homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
. The landlord claimed the Clinic had not met certain leasing and payment requirements, and a judge agreed. WWC eventually found other space and built the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia.
1990s
Whitman-Walker Clinic faced another financial crisis in 1990. Once more, insurance costs were the problem, and once more the City Council backed a plan to subsidize the clinic's health insurance costs. Although the City Council approved the plan, Mayor Marion Barry vetoed the bill and the Council was unable to override. The Clinic was able to find insurance once more, albeit at very high prices. A major grant-writing campaign led to the infusion of more than $3 million in grantGrant (money)
Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...
funds in 1991, helping to reinforce the Clinic's finances. The same year, First Lady
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
Barbara Bush
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush is the wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush...
made a highly publicized visit to the clinic, opening its Bill Austin Day Treatment Center.
In 1992, Whitman-Walker Clinic opened its Max Robinson Center in Southeast D.C. and the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Southern Maryland. The Clinic's expansion efforts, however, caused conflict with some other service groups. For example, in 1993 WWC applied for a million-dollar HIV/AIDS grant from the District of Columbia. WWC competed for the grant against a coalition of primarily African American service and outreach groups. The Clinic won the grant, angering some community leaders and activists who felt the city had discriminated against black organizations in favor of the white-led Clinic. Local community leaders also opposed the Clinic's expanding housing program, fearing for the health and safety of their communities.
Whitman-Walker Clinic also adopted oral testing for HIV
HIV test
HIV tests are used to detect the presence of the human immunodeficiency virus , the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , in serum, saliva, or urine. Such tests may detect antibodies, antigens, or RNA.- Terminology :...
in 1993 before most major AIDS clinics in the U.S. The following year, WWC built the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center, named in honor of actress and AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
. The building's opening ceremony was attended by Taylor and pop singer
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
.
In 1995, the Clinic established a program under which patients could sell their life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
policies to the organization in exchange for an annuity
Annuity (US financial products)
In the United States an annuity contract is created when an insured party, usually an individual, pays a life insurance company a single premium that will later be distributed back to the insured party over time...
. Critics claimed that Whitman-Walker would benefit only if its patients died, making this a conflict of interest. Its 1997 AIDS Walk was its most profitable ever, with about 25,000 people helping to raise $1.7 million.
Recent leadership turnover and financial difficulties
Whitman-Walker Clinic has suffered from a number of personnel issues in the late 1990s and 2000s. In 1993, WWC's new director of clinical services was found to have falsified a résuméRésumé
A résumé is a document used by individuals to present their background and skillsets. Résumés can be used for a variety of reasons but most often to secure new employment. A typical résumé contains a summary of relevant job experience and education...
. The Clinic's Board of Directors initially refused to fire the physician, but was forced to do so a month later after public outcry.
Long-time WWC director Jim Graham departed the Clinic in 1999 to run (successfully) for the D.C. City Council. Since then, the organization has had significant turnover among its leadership. Graham's replacement was Cornelius Baker, an HIV-positive civil rights and HIV activist. But only a year into Baker's tenure, WWC announced it was suffering from significant financial problems, which led to the closure of several programs and facilities. The District of Columbia is heavily reliant on Whitman-Walker Clinic to provide a significant amount of its HIV/AIDS testing and outpatient treatment. Clinic officials blamed the financial crisis on the District's exceedingly high per-capita rate of HIV and AIDS, the collapse of several major fund-raising ventures (including the bankruptcy of the AIDS Ride and much reduced attendance at the AIDS Walk), rising meth
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
addiction (which often leads to higher incidents of HIV infection), and overdependence on government grants and funding rather than private insurance. To combat these financial trends, the Clinic began charging for some services in 2003. But the changes did not help. Baker resigned as executive director of Whitman-Walker Clinic in December 2004, telling the Washington Blade that the Clinic's financial difficulties had negatively impacted his health and citing other personal reasons for leaving.
The search for Baker's replacement was a lengthy and difficult one. During the search process, Whitman-Walker continued to hemorrhage money. The Clinic sold a Northern Virginia group home for AIDS patients, shuttered the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Southern Maryland, closed several substance abuse programs, and shut its food bank. In May 2005, the District of Columbia government announced that the Clinic had overcharged the city $2 million for services. Rather than risk its government funding, the Clinic was forced to immediately repay the money, creating severe financial pressures. Staff were not paid for a month, and layoffs and program cuts occurred in August. Liquidity issues became so severe that WWC warned the public that it might close. The City Council quickly passed legislation speeding up city payments to the Clinic (which had lagged during the city's own financial crisis), and awarding new emergency grants to the organization to keep it afloat. The surge in funds going toward Whitman-Walker deeply angered many other AIDS and minority groups, who felt the Clinic was being rewarded for its mismanagement simply because it was "too big to fail." The Clinic continued to make changes and cuts throughout 2006. Accused of having an unwieldy, over-sized Board of Directors, the Clinic reduced the size of its board, laid off staff, and restructured lines of authority. In January 2006, Whitman-Walker announced a turnaround plan to refocus its work away from solely providing care to people with HIV and AIDS and adding health care services unrelated to HIV/AIDS. The plan would also focus on providing health care to entire families rather than just individuals.
On March 13, 2006, the Whitman-Walker Clinic Board of Directors announced it was hiring Donald Blanchon to take over as chief executive officer on May 1. Blanchon was formerly chief executive officer of Maryland Physicians Care (a managed care health plan in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
) and vice president for Medicaid and Medicare programs at Schaller Anderson (a medical management firm). Blanchon quickly announced his support for the Board's turnaround plan. A week later, Whitman-Walker Clinic announced it would sell its two properties on 14th Street and the Max Robinson Center in Anacostia and seek to build new, larger medical treatment facilities in the two respective areas by 2009. These actions were intended to stabilize the Clinic's financial condition. But just four months later, Blanchon fired two long-time leaders of Whitman-Walker Clinic, leading to renewed concerns that the Clinic's financial and personnel issues had not been resolved. On January 11, 2008, Blanchon said the Clinic had almost completed its transformation into a primary care medical organization. WWC hired Dr. Raymond Martins, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Georgetown University School of Medicine, a medical school opened in 1851, is one of Georgetown University's five graduate schools. It is located on Reservoir Road in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, adjacent to the University's main campus...
as its new chief medical officer, purchased and installed a state-of-the-art computerized patient record-keeping system, and outsourced
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
its financial management department. Although Whitman-Walker also laid off an unspecified number of employees due to the outsourcing, Blanchon said the Clinic was still the area's largest provider of HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment. The Clinic also said it was suspending plans to sell all of its existing buildings in order to finance a new, high-rise medical center. WWC announced in January 2008 that it would receive funding from the D.C. Primary Care Association which would enable it to keep its buildings on 14th Street NW. The Clinic said the tentative funding agreement would shutter the Max Robinson Center in Ward 8 and open a new, larger facility in Ward 7.
Few of Blanchon's plans came to fruition. In June 2008, the Clinic sold its long-time headquarters at 1407 S Street NW to The JBG Cos. for $8 million and moved its administrative staff into the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center on 14th Street NW. The Clinic, whose operating budget had fallen 17 percent since 2007 to just $20 million a year, cited $5 million in debts stemming from mortgages on its existing buildings. The Clinic closed its on-site laboratory and closed the last of its food banks. The October 2008 AIDS Walk was the Clinic's most successful in several years, however, raising $700,000. By year's end, the clinic had served about 10,000 patients, of whom 3,400 were HIV-positive. Nonetheless, WWC's finances continued to worsen. Government reimbursements for medical care had not kept pace with inflation, donations had dropped by 29 percent, sales of medical services had decreased, and the number of patients without insurance had risen. To cope with these problems, WWC closed the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia (which still served more than 1,100 patients), closed its residential addiction treatment center, and laid off 45 employees. WWC also outsourced its pharmacy operations to Maxor National Pharmacy Services Corporation (a privately-held, for-profit pharmacy management company based in Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
), and closed its mental health telephone hotline. WWC staff were devastated at the news. "I thought that once we got the
Whitman-Walker Clinic's continuing financial difficulties led to political problems for the organization in 2009. D.C. Councilman David Catania
David Catania
David A. Catania is an American politician and lawyer from Washington, D.C. He is currently a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, where he serves as an independent, elected at-large .-Biography:Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Catania is a graduate of Georgetown University's School...
blasted Blanchon and the Clinic's senior staff of "gross negligence and malfeasance" at a public forum in January 2009. He specifically accused WWC of closing facilities in Maryland and Virginia without seeking financial assistance from public health authorities, an accusation some laid-off staff echoed. He also questioned why WWC would reduce staff at the still-unsold Max Robinson Center when that part of the city is suffering hardest from the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Catania also accused the Clinic of an anti-gay bias for laying off three lesbian senior managers, and of abandoning its ties to the city's GLBTQ community. Former staff members agreed. "Mr. Blanchon has a whole different vision for what the clinic should be, and those of us in the GLBT community are heartbroken," a former WWC associate executive director told the press.
The WWC Board of Directors requested that the law firm of Arnold & Porter
Arnold & Porter
Arnold & Porter LLP is a nine-office international law firm based in Washington, D.C. Arnold & Porter is well known for its trial, corporate, and antitrust work, and for its pro bono commitments and support for liberal causes.-History:...
and contractor Huron Consulting Group
Huron Consulting Group
The Huron Consulting Group , founded in 2002, is a global management consulting company offering services in the Healthcare, Education, Law, and Finance industries...
conduct an audit to review Catania's charges. Although the audit did not appear to substantiate Catania's charges, Catania accused Arnold & Porter of a conflict of interest
Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....
because James J. Sandman, chairman of Whitman-Walker's board, was formerly employed by the firm. Blanchon strongly denied all the accusations.
The D.C. Council Committee on Health, which Catania chairs, set a hearing on the issues for April 27, 2009. On March 24 and April 20, Whitman-Walker turned over 2,000 documents to Catania for additional review. Council member Jim Graham, who led the clinic from 1984 to 1999, supported the decision to hold hearings. Sandman, now chief counsel for the D.C. public school system, resigned rather than testify before the D.C. Council.
See also
- Healthcare in the United States
- Healthcare in Washington, D.C.
- HIV/AIDS in the United StatesHIV/AIDS in the United States[[File:New HIV Cases 22 States 2006 CDC.svg|thumb|300px|Estimated Number of New HIV Cases—22 States 2006...
External links
- Whitman-Walker Health
- Jim Graham Papers Finding Aid, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University