Grady Memorial Hospital is facing monumental problems, but don't expect Dr. Louis Sullivan to be intimidated by them.

After all, the man has run one of the largest health organizations in the world, as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

(ENLARGE)

Dr. Louis Sullivan, shown with former Spelman College president Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole during a ceremony at Morehouse, is a former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Of all the high profile Atlantans recently chosen for the board of the new Grady nonprofit corporation, few, if any, have more impressive resumes than Sullivan.

Although he is a highly qualified choice for the 17-member board, his appointment has personal meaning as well.

Sullivan is a Grady baby.

"I was born at Grady, so I have a sentimental attachment," he said.

He brings a lot more to the board than good will. Sullivan brings his connections to the medical world, the Washington bureaucracy, high-end donors and to the black community.

Credibility in the black community could be key in Grady's rehabilitation. Many of its patients are minorities, and the restructuring has been viewed with suspicion by some black leaders who fear it is a power grab by white business leaders.

"He has a foothold and credibility in so many communities," said Pete Correll, the Atlanta businessman who is chairman of the new Grady board.

Sullivan graduated cum laude from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1958 and went on to teach medicine at Harvard University and to become the founding dean and first president of the Morehouse School of Medicine.

Morehouse, with Emory University School of Medicine, provides doctors for Grady.

Sullivan left Morehouse in 1989 to accept an appointment by President George H.W. Bush to head HHS, managing the federal agency responsible for major health, welfare and food and drug safety programs.

Sullivan acknowledges that he thought twice about joining the Grady nonprofit board. He was scheduled to speak Tuesday at a rally for the uninsured at Grady, but beforehand, he noted that his plate was already pretty full.

He is leading an effort to create a national health museum, which he said may end up in Atlanta. He's also heading the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce, a project by the Kellogg Foundation.

Aside from his sentimental attachment, the north Atlanta resident has seen the financial crunch gripping Grady, which is metro's top-level trauma center, teaching hospital and medical center of last resort for the poor and uninsured.

"It would be a disaster for Grady to disappear," Sullivan said.

Grady has been buffeted for years by rising health care costs, dwindling state and federal aid, a dearth of paying patients and years of neglect. The hospital ended last year with a $55 million deficit in its $730 million budget.

The Grady board is expected in coming months to take over operations from a politically appointed hospital authority.

Sullivan has critics. The Rev. Tim McDonald, a leader of the advocacy group called the Grady Coalition, said he does not believe Sullivan has demonstrated a passion to provide health care to the poor.

"This is not Morehouse; this is not the White House; this is Grady. ... This is the poor," said McDonald, the former head of Concerned Black Clergy of Metro Atlanta.

Sullivan, for his part, said his concern for the poor is as great as McDonald's. He noted that Morehouse School of Medicine has trained many doctors who serve in poor areas.

"I may not be a placard-carrying person in the parades," he said. "But I'm just as committed."

Sullivan said one of the reasons he joined the new board is to try to ease some of the distrust and racial tensions surrounding the management change at Grady.

"One of my goals is to have open communication to all segments of the community, including black, Hispanic and other minorities," he said.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, an Atlanta civil rights leader, said he trusts Sullivan to protect Grady's historical mission to serve the needy. Sullivan might just have a different style of doing so, he said.

"Some of us serve in the streets, and some of us in the suites," Lowery said.