beds. At the time of its dedication, it was the largest private building in the District of Columbia. 1981 President Ronald Reagan rushed to GW's Emergency Department after an assassination attempt, suffering from gunshot wounds in the chest and in the lower right arm. The center is later renamed for Reagan, who survived. 1996 The GW Medical Faculty Associates' mobile mammography program aims to make life-saving early detection of breast cancer possible for all women in D.C., regardless of their ability to pay. This vital program is still being offered today. 1997 Universal Health Services buys an 80% stake in the hospital and takes over day-to-day operations from the university 2002 GW Hospital moves across the street to 900 23rd Street, NW. The 371-bed facility is the first new hospital in D.C. in over 20 years. 2019 GW Hospital opens their new rooftop helipad constructed on the existing hospital facility that originally opened in 2002. The approval for this to be added required overturning an existing DC law which had been in place since the 1980's that prohibited the construction of any new helipads within the District. The newly revised law allows for Level I Trauma Centers to construct and operate these facilities. The helipad is used by private companies such as PHI and STAT Medevac for transfers of critically ill patients from outside hospitals in need of specialty trauma, cardiac, or neurologic care. Critical trauma patients may also be transported directly from accident scenes by United States Park Police Eagle helicopters or Maryland State Police that operate EMS medevac flights within the DC region. Services Emergency medicine At George Washington University, the Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine was established in 1991. The department cares for nearly 85,000 patients each year, including serious injuries, as a level 1 trauma center. GW's emergency department consists of: 52 emergency department beds 2 trauma bays 6 critical care stabilization bays 5 negative-pressure isolation rooms 12 fast-track treatment rooms Center for trauma and critical care The George Washington University Hospital is an ACS verified level I trauma centerGWUH receives the most critically-injured trauma patients from Washington, D.C. and the Northern Virginia area, as well as hospital transfers from Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. In 2018, the hospital was approved to construct a helipad after a many year battle to change a DC law prohibiting the construction of new helipads. The addition of this