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DEL.ICIO.USMore pressure for Grady: Shafer shops bill mandating hospital be run by non-profit corporation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) is directing his colleagues to a web site he’s had set up, featuring his legislation that would require the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority to contract with a non-profit corporation to manage Grady Memorial Hospital and its operations.
The site is www.reforminggrady.org.
“Changing the form of governance is a necessary first step and not a bargaining chip for state aid,” Shafer said this morning, via e-mail.
In a letter to other state senators, posted on the site, Shafer has this:
“This nonprofit form of management is almost universally recognized as the most efficient and effective way to manage a large urban public hospital. It is widely used throughout the country and has been voluntarily adopted by every other county hospital authority in the metro Atlanta area.
“The lone holdout is the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, which operates Grady Hospital and Grady Health System.”
On Wednesday, the Fulton County Commission withheld some much-needed cash from Grady, but promised funds if the hospital authority took the steps toward a new management structure.
Here’s a link to today’s latest AJC story on Grady.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By MH
August 16, 2007 9:29 AM | Link to this
Of course he is. He lives in Duluth, so he doesn’t have to fund the system. It’s easy for him to sit there and screw around with it, since his constituents aren’t going to bear the brunt of any costs.
By art
August 16, 2007 10:03 AM | Link to this
Close Grady. Close it now. While there will be a few problems in the near-term which other hospitals will have to deal with, it will force a long-term solution down the throats of corrupt politicians like Vernon Jones. In closing Grady at least temporarily, it gives us the opportunity to wipe the slate clean of the abject incompetence and stupidity of Pamela Stephenson and the board she “leads”. A new Grady can rise from the ashes shortly thereafter without imbeciles like Stephenson at the head. This plan could be effected before then end of 2007. A new Grady power structure reflecting the Chamber’s suggestions could open for business on January 1.
By JustMe
August 16, 2007 10:44 AM | Link to this
Part of me does hope that Grady closes. Not because I think it is bad or a waste, but rather to show EVERYONE what will happen.
What will happen? All of the indigents will be going to the local hospitals and over-running them. The places in Cobb, Gwinnett, Clayton, etc. will be flooded with patients that would have otherwise been at Grady.
Grady serves pratically the entire State of GA (to include the illegal aliens). People drive from Dalton, Macon, and South GA to go to Grady. Yet, they do not pay anything. Is it a wonder that Grady is going under?
By sct
August 16, 2007 11:52 AM | Link to this
Its official. There are now 3 distinct political parties in Georgia.
Republican- All White. Definitely the super-majority when it comes to state politics. Lots of power and they use it,($$$$$$) Mainly male. Always on the look-out for a black token. Dominated by conservative Christians that claim “moral high ground”
Black Democrat- Only power is local. And they use it($$$). First on to do list when in power, get rid of whites, even the white Democrats. The Black Democrats love their isolation, but don’t like being isolated. Dominated by conservative Christians that claim “moral high ground”
White Democrat- Nearly extinct in Georgia. Have no real power . Token power in some isolated Intown neighborhoods.
Its time we start making the distinction. There are big differences in the three.
By art
August 16, 2007 3:22 PM | Link to this
JustMe, although more sympathetic to the current Grady failure, has added another reason to close Grady now: to show what it would be like without it. A resurrected Grady should be run by the state, period. Many of the current patients are from outside Fulton and Dekalb, many outside even the metro area. Closure will temporarily overwhelm the local hospitals and show the state Grady must be saved, just with a different group of people running it. The current power structure is rotten to core and must be deposed, beginning with the board.
By '93 bond
August 16, 2007 9:12 PM | Link to this
No one is talking about the 1993 Grady bond. Corrution, waste, graft. Unfinished floors to this day. Still paying $20-$30 mil a year on interest. We are supposed to trust these clowns with our tax money?
Notice how the apologists like Pam Stephenson, Connie Stokes, Vernon Jones, Emma Darnell, Nancy Boxill and Bill Edwards never, ever mention taxpayers. They serve themselves and their power base, not taxpayers, and have for years.
By Whitney
August 17, 2007 8:14 AM | Link to this
art, the state does not need to be operating any more hospitals. Isn’t the current conditions of Georgia’s Regional Hospital system an indictment of their ability?
Edify me please. Does the current board receive $ for their direction?As a non profit the board could not be paid What difference does a tax status make? Who would appoint the board of directors in the non profit? Would the board have some fiduciary responsibility for operation of Grady? Given the system that Grady operates in as the de-facto safety net for DeKalb and Fulton residents, how is a simple change in leadership at this local level make Grady profitable?
By Doc Wisdom
August 17, 2007 10:35 AM | Link to this
A nonprofit corporation would have more flexibility than the current authority, including the ability to enter into joint ventures with physicians, other hospitals and universities and to offer a wider range of reimbursable services. Every other urban hospital authority in the state has already done this because it makes so much obvious sense. The Hospital Authorties Law under which Grady is organized was written in the 1940s before there was Medicare, Medicaid, etc. The Shafer bill also has special conflict-of-interest provisions to make sure that the nonprofit board is behold only to Grady and not to its vendors or “partners.”