Grady dialysis patients get treatment reprieve -- again

By Shelia M. Poole and Craig Schneider

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Though Grady Memorial Hospital has contracted with a clinic to provide free dialysis care for patients until September, the hospital continues to push patients to find their own care and has set another deadline to stop treatments.

The mixed messages and changing deadlines have confused and angered patients.

"It's like so much stress mentally. Every day you think, ‘what's going to happen tomorrow?'" said Bineet Kaur, a 26-year-old dialysis patient from India.

Grady had initially told patients it was closing its outpatient dialysis clinic in October. Most of the approximately 50 patients are illegal immigrants who pay nothing for their care. The hospital then told patients they would have three more months to find care elsewhere. During that time, Grady has paid for their treatments at the outside provider Fresenius.

That three-month deadline arrived Sunday.

By Monday, the hospital again shifted the deadline, this time to Feb. 3.

In the meantime, patients have learned that the hospital has contracted with Fresenius to provide treatments for as long as September.

"We need time," said Kaur, who initially came to the United States eight or nine years ago on a tourist visa and stayed once it expired.  Kaur lives with her aunt and uncle in Fulton County. She said she doesn't have any relatives in India. "This is my one and only option."

She said she wants Grady to live up to its mission to provide medical care for the poor, uninsured and underinsured. "When patients started here, (the hospital) knew they were illegal," she said. "If you give your hand to someone and then pull back your hand, they're going to fall."

Grady officials say they are doing all they can to help. The financially struggling hospital said it had to close its outpatient dialysis clinic because most of the patients paid nothing and the clinic was losing millions every year.

Grady has offered to help these patients relocate to their home countries or to states where they have a better chance of receiving public assistance.

Matt Gove, a hospital spokesman, said Grady wants to help the patients shift to long-term solutions, but it can't pay for their care forever. He has acknowledged that Grady's contract with Fresenius extends to September, but he said patients still need to be looking elsewhere for their own care.

After Feb. 3, the extension of care will be decided by Grady on a case-by-case basis, he said. He said he doesn't know whether Grady will create a new deadline once again after Feb. 3. He said it is possible some of the patients will still be with Fresenius until September.

Fresenius did not return several messages seeking comment.

Last month, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville  said he would dismiss a lawsuit by patients trying to force Grady to reopen the outpatient dialysis clinic.

Grady's Gove said the hospital has spent about $160,000 in legal fees on the matter, mostly in court costs.

Another patient, Adejumoke Olaleye-Abner, said she plans to stay in Georgia and see what happens. Olaleye-Abner, a native of Nigeria, recently received her green card. The College Park woman doesn't want to go back to Nigeria because her husband is here and she worries about the quality of care back home.

"I'm scared," she said. "I don't know what's going on with Grady. It's like they're playing with our lives. "