Grady Memorial Hospital plans to close three of its nine neighborhood clinics, sparking outrage from some local officials and fears from patients that they will lose their health care.
Grady CEO Michael Young said no patients will lose services, since each of the health clinics will consolidate with other Grady clinics about five miles away.
Young said patients will actually receive better services, as the clinics on the chopping block offer limited services. One clinic is located in a Kroger supermarket, and another sees as few as eight patients a day. The closings will save about $1.5 million annually.
The Center Hill Health Center, located near the intersection of I-20 and I-285 in west Atlanta, is set to close July 1. The Lindbergh Women and Children's Health Center, located on Buford Highway in Atlanta, will close in the early fall to allow time for school-related physicals. No fixed date has been set for the closing of the South DeKalb Health Center.
The neighborhood clinics, most of which provide primary care services such as blood pressure screenings and diabetes tests, are an important part of Grady's mission to provide care for low-income communities in Fulton and DeKalb counties. Many patients are poor and uninsured and pay little or nothing of the costs of care.
The plan to close the South DeKalb center, which is located in a Kroger supermarket, has angered some county officials.
Commissioner Larry Johnson blasted it as a "travesty."
Johnson said his district in southwest DeKalb, with its relatively large low-income population, is medically underserved and needs the clinic.
Johnson threatened to reduce county funding to Grady. DeKalb provides the hospital with about $20 million annually.
"I've told them emphatically that clinic cannot close," he said.
Fulton Commission Chairman John Eaves said he is confident that Grady officials are balancing the need to run the hospital efficiently and provide services to people. But Fulton Commissioner Emma Darnell criticized closing the Center Hill center and transferring patients elsewhere.
"People are really, really upset. ... They don't have the transportation," she said.
At the Lindbergh clinic Wednesday, several patients said they worried they would be left without health care. Some walked to the center from their homes nearby, arriving with their children in strollers.
Without a car of her own, Lidia Lorenzo and her 3-year-old son, Johan, caught a ride from her dad to the clinic.
"Bad," she said of the plan to close the women and children center, where she has been coming since her pregnancy with Johan. "It's not complicated to come here."
Young, the Grady CEO, said the hospital will help people make the switch. Patients will receive letters — in English or Spanish — to inform them of the change. He is planning to run a shuttle bus from the South DeKalb site to another clinic for a few months after the change, and he may do that for the other two clinics.
The South DeKalb clinic sees only about 35 patients a day and has no lab, pharmacy or X-ray machine, he said. Patients who transfer to the DeKalb-Grady clinic, about five miles away, will receive a fuller range of health services, he said.
The Lindbergh clinic offers no adult services beyond those for pregnant women, he said.
Young also pointed to the need to tighten Grady's financial belt in light of a multimillion-dollar deficit. "We have to get a little more efficient," he said.
The head of the Grady corporation board, Pete Correll, praised the plan, saying it will provide improved care to these patients and save money.
The Rev. Tim McDonald, a leader of the hospital watchdog group called the Grady Coalition, said he understands Grady's need to save money, but he is concerned about needy communities losing health services.
Staff writer Ty Tagami contributed to this article.
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
