Grady Board Approves Governance Change

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – Yesterday, Grady Health Systems' board of trustees decided to relinquish their authority to a new, private, not-for-profit board of directors. It followed months of heated debate. But some say the more arduous tasks are still ahead.

It was clear well before the meeting even began that emotions would run high. State Senator Vincent Fort and some others got into a scuffle with security outside the doors of the conference area.

He later explained what happened:

FORT: It was 3:30, we were trying to get in a public meeting, and I was handcuffed, Councilmember Boazman was handcuffed, a third person was taken away and handcuffed, and beat down, and a fourth person, a woman, was not only handcuffed, beat down, they strangled her with a baton.

After that, the meeting's venue was changed to a larger room that could accommodate the hundreds that showed up.

Still, Grady's chairwoman had to grant an impromptu public comment session to let dozens air their frustrations.

Former Atlanta Councilmember Derrick Boazman was one:

BOAZMAN: we didn't come this far on the bloodshed of our people, and on the tears of widows and grandmothers, to have bourgeois negroes, sellout uncle toms, to turn their back on the least of us.

Boazman, Fort, and others call the measure that Grady's board ultimately took, a white takeover of a major public asset.

The resolution relieves the authority of its daily management of Grady's operations. Instead, the hospital authority would remain intact only as landlord of Grady's assets. It would contract out the task of day-to-day policy decisions to a new, private, non-profit board of directors - or 501c3.

Several authority members, like Thomas Dortch, defended themselves against the accusation that they were puppets of Atlanta's business community:

DORTCH: The one thing that's guaranteed: if we do nothing, Grady will close. And if Grady closes, we lose lives. We're not the enemy. We've been given a fiduciary responsibility to keep the doors open.

In all, authority members said that a change in governance could secure half a billion dollars for the cash-strapped institution. Their resolution seeks written confirmations from several sources of that funding before the end of December.

The business and philanthropic communities would commit to 200 million dollars over the next four years, and to raising 100 million more later. State leaders would commit to supporting legislation to give Grady 30 million dollars annually, establish funding Georgia's trauma network, and increase support for medical residents.

Dr. John Maupin, head of the Morehouse School of Medicine, believes the authority did the right thing, but more work lies ahead:

MAUPIN: come January 31st, we have to give guarantees to new residents that we will be placing them here, and that there will be a Grady. And that's a tough guarantee to give if there's not any further movement.

The Morehouse School of Medicine sends all its residents to Grady. Maupin says for now, he'll continue to explore alternative agreements, in case the many pieces of this resolution fail to come together.

Pete Correll, a member of the Greater Grady Task Force, which initially recommended the 501c3 option, says there isn't much time to put those pieces together:

CORRELL: People that they're demanding action from, the state, Fulton and DeKalb County, and the charitable community, are going to need some time to read these things, understand them, negotiate with the hospital authority, and see if we can get to an acceptable lease.

The language of the lease must be hashed out and approved by the end of December.