Reversing what she said when she took the helm of Grady Memorial Hospital in January, Pam Stephenson acknowledged Thursday she has run a hospital before. But she won't talk about it.

"I'm not going to get into the details," Stephenson said.

Elissa Eubanks/AJC (ENLARGE)

Grady Hospital CEO Pam Stephenson took what she called a 'field trip' around the hospital in an effort to visit and spend time on every floor in April.

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When Stephenson took the post of Grady CEO in January, she was asked the question directly by a reporter.

"I have never run a hospital," she said. "But I have worked in various operations of hospitals."

Now, Stephenson, a lawyer who specializes in health care, says she was brought in as an "emergency manager" of a hospital for about nine months around the year 2000.

What was the name of the hospital? What did she do? Did the hospital prosper?

No comment.

Stephenson said Thursday she misunderstood the question in January, that she thought the reporter was asking whether she had any experience as a hospital CEO.

"That's my bad," Stephenson said. "To me, managing as an attorney is different."

Stephenson's silence upset some Grady advocates concerned about her qualifications to run the state's largest charity hospital and metro Atlanta's only top-level trauma center.

Fulton County Commissioner Lynne Riley, a frequent critic of Grady management, said the mystery is troubling, especially since Stephenson has expressed interest in becoming permanent CEO at Grady.

"It would be nice to know what experience she brings to the table," Riley said.

Moreover, Riley said, Stephenson's reluctance does not speak well of her qualifications as a Grady search committee seeks a permanent CEO.

Stephenson said disclosing the details would violate her attorney-client relationship with the hospital.

"They don't want to be in the media," she said.

In addition, she said speaking about her experience could compromise the ongoing search for a new CEO, because she might appear to be trying to gain an edge over any other candidates.

Asked whether she would share the details with Grady's CEO search committee, she responded in a written statement: "If the course of events leads to a meeting with the CEO search committee, I will continue to honor the attorney-client privilege associated with the engagement in question."

While Stephenson has expressed interest in making the job permanent, she said on Thursday that she will make no formal announcement on whether she has applied .

"I don't want to take a confidential process, and violate it myself," she said.

Once a public agency narrows the field of contenders for an executive position, the state Open Records Act requires disclosure of the records of the top three candidates.

Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), a prominent advocate for Grady hospital, said he has mixed feelings about Stephenson's reluctance to explain her hospital management experience.

He said he respects the need for confidentiality in the client-attorney relationship, but believes the Grady search committee needs a professional history of each candidate.

"It's a public hospital, funded with public money," he said. "The process should be transparent for all candidates."

Grady officials fired CEO Otis Story in January and replaced him with Stephenson. She immediately drew criticism for her increasing influence over the hospital system. In addition to taking the interim CEO post, she is head of the Grady board of trustees and vice chairwoman of the Grady nonprofit corporation, which is expected to assume control of the hospital this month.