The region's largest private hospital has agreed to a deal in principle that could steer nearly 1,000 baby births - nearly a quarter of its annual total - to the D.C.-owned United Medical Center in Southeast, helping relieve crowding in its own obstetrics unit and boosting revenue at the underused facility.

Under the plan announced Thursday, the 926-bed Washington Hospital Center would provide staffing and management for UMC's birth unit, including up to nine of its physicians who currently practice either at WHC or the Unity Health Care primary-care clinics in the neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.

UMC would pay a management fee for the services and staffing, but the hospital expects to nearly triple its current annual birth count, from less than 500 to 1,500 annually, which could add $7 million in new revenue, said United Medical Center CEO Frank DeLisi. Births are among the most lucrative and desirable services offered by acute-care hospitals, and obstetrics is a loss leader at UMC because of its under-use.

In exchange, Washington Hospital Center, part of the MedStar Health system, would see its capacity concerns mitigated, said Chief Medical Officer Janis Orlowski. In 2009, the Northwest D.C. hospital performed 4,529 births, off a peak reached in 2008 but still very high by historical standards. More than 1,600 of those births are by women who live in Wards 7 or 8 and get their pregnancy care at Unity clinics, according to Unity statistics.

"The Washington Hospital Center itself has been serving people from this community for over 50 years, but with this new partnership, we have an opportunity to begin serving people from this community in this community," said WHC President John Sullivan.

The hospital center believes it can use the space freed up by the deal to grow selected surgical programs and its neuroscience program, Orlowsi said.

Both WHC and the District-created corporate board overseeing United Medical Center have signed a letter of intent, but expect to ink a final three-year, renewable contract soon.

Washington Hospital Center officials, UMC officials and several senior D.C. politicians - including Mayor Adrian Fenty, fighting for his position in next week's Democratic primary - announced the deal at a press conference Thursday. Attorney General Peter Nickles used the press conference to again defend and promote the D.C. government's move earlier this year to take control of United Medical Center from former owner, Specialty Hospitals of America LLC, through a foreclosure auction.

Multiple issues relating to the foreclosure remain in litigation. Officials at Thursday's press conference said they are seeking other partnerships with D.C. hospitals to help revive United Medical Center, which has come to the brink of shutting down under private control in the past.