The hunt is on for a new leader of Grady Memorial Hospital after the resignation Thursday of CEO Michael Young, a key player in saving the massive safety net hospital from financial ruin.
Young accepted a position as head of PinnacleHealth in Harrisburg, Pa. -- a move that will allow him to help his aging parents, who live just 16 miles away from the hospital.
“I got an opportunity to go back home; that doesn’t happen very often,” said Young, who emphasized that he’s not leaving the Atlanta hospital because of its current financial troubles.
Young took Grady's helm in 2008 as part of an effort by a group of key business and community leaders to save the cash-strapped hospital from closing its doors by transferring it to a corporate board.
“Clearly, Mike was the right man at the right time,” board Chairman Pete Correll said. “This was a loss.”
The hospital will start a nationwide search for a replacement immediately, with Young staying on as late as June to help with the transition, Correll said. The hospital also recently brought on board a new chief operating officer, Mark Chastang, who has more than 25 years of experience in health care administration, he added.
Young said his first 60 to 90 days at Grady were the toughest. The hospital owed $120 million to vendors and the century-old facility hadn’t been updated in decades.
“It was hard to attract people to be a part of Grady,” Young said.
In a major turnaround effort, Young, who received a $200,000 bonus for 2010, led the hospital to its first profit in years by cutting jobs, replacing outdated medical equipment, renegotiating contracts with vendors and suppliers, and ramping up cash collection efforts.
His no-nonsense style of leadership angered some staff, politicians and business leaders, however.
Though Young was insensitive at times, the results are what matter, said Thomas Dortch, a Grady corporate board member and chairman of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority board of trustees.
Three years ago, applicants wouldn’t have been knocking the doors down to come to Grady, but Young is leaving the hospital in a much better position, Dortch said.
It has new equipment, more capital and a strong executive team, he said. “The foundation is in place.”
But Grady isn’t yet where it needs to be, Correll said. “We still have change ahead of us.”
The hospital has recently been hit by a spate of financial setbacks. Fulton and DeKalb counties each cut their funding to Grady by roughly $3 million, after a drop of more than $10 million in federal dollars to care for the poor and uninsured.
Grady officials recently announced 100 job cuts, the closure of two neighborhood health clinics and increases in prescription drug co-pays.
“Grady has fallen back into hard times,” said state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, a leader of the Grady Coalition patient advocacy group.
Fort said he hopes Young’s replacement will help attract more operating dollars to the hospital.
The Rev. Tim McDonald, also a Grady Coalition member, said he hopes the new CEO will be both fiscally responsible and also relate better to the community.
“It’s hard to find somebody like that who has both of those qualities,” he said.
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