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DEL.ICIO.USGrady’s problem: A former board member says it’s Emory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Late Monday, a package began circulating around the state Capitol that appears sure to heat up legislative interest in the plight of Grady Memorial Hospital.
The entire contents can be found here. The most inflammatory portion is a three-page letter from Bill Loughrey, a former member of the hospital authority that governs Grady. He was ousted from the board last month.
The letter from Loughrey is addressed to state Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), author of legislation to mandate that Grady be put under the management of a non-profit corporation — as a requisite before any state funding of Grady occurs.
Loughrey disagrees. He says the root of Grady’s predicament is not its lack of a corporate structure. He says the problem is the hospital’s relationship with Emory University, which has day-to-day control over many of the hospital’s operations.
In his letter to Shafer, Loughrey claims that an audit, which has not been made public, “found that Emory was under-funding and under-staffing profitable service lines such as cardiology and orthopedics that compete with Emory-owned hospitals, including Crawford Long.”
Loughrey also claims that the audit has been kept secret, and that much of the money proposed for a Grady bail-out — in the form of a loan proposed by the authority — would go to Emory.
Moreover, the former authority member says that Emory University employees who have drawn attention to the alleged conflict of interest have been fired — and then hushed up with settlements.
We can’t vouch for Loughrey’s charges. Expect the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority to address them sometime today. But to say that Loughrey’s charges have made an impression on Shafer is to understate the situation.
In a two-page cover letter to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Shafer said Loughrey has raised “a number of very troubling issues.”
“Particularly disquieting is the revelation that Grady has not only failed to take remedial action on an audit conducted over two years ago, but that it has kept the audit secret. I have been advised by legislative counsel that the report of this audit is subject to the [state] Open Records Act, and I have asked Grady to provide me with a copy. I will be sure to advise you of Grady’s response.”
Shafer’s message, with Loughery’s letter attached, was copied to the whole of the Senate’s Republican leadership.
Loughrey served two four-year terms as a member of the authority. Until July, he had been serving as a temporary member, until a replacement was formally named.
Loughrey was dumped from the board after a bit of grand-standing, in which he took it upon himself to hand Cobb County a $4 million bill — which Loughrey said was owed by the county for its residents who had used Grady’s services. The bill was rejected.
Comments
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By waitaminit
August 28, 2007 10:55 PM | Link to this
He’ll get hammered, devalued and called a nut—with complicity by your newspaper. Surprised you guys even gave it ink, based on your previous record for un-reporting Grady/Emory corruption. Here’s something simple that might add to the man’s bona fides in your articles—why hasn’t the paper mentioned Louhgery’s near miss at becoming Fulton Chairman just a few months ago—getting blind-sided by that wierd “firehoses” ad?
By The Truthbearer
August 29, 2007 1:36 AM | Link to this
Darn right - the AJC covered up the fact that a handful of people were sacked for bringing to light the corruption. A med student even pointed out Emory’s role in patient care scandals and was driven out of there for crying out loud! Surprised the AJC is even reporting any damning info about Emory’s role considering the AJC’s close ties to Emory.