Grady Hospital Stands Firm on Decision to Close Dialysis Center

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – Grady Hospital will still close its dialysis center on Sunday, but will keep the licenses it needs to operate the unit for six more months. That's in spite of a protest by more than one hundred people yesterday who asked for the center to stay open one month longer, and who doubt Grady's promise to find alternative services in the next six days.

WABE's Odette Yousef reports.

Emotions ran high at the hospital's board meeting, boiling over into full-on shouting matches at times between patient advocates and board members.

ADVOCATE: They're going to be dead in six days!
BOARD MEMBER: No they're not!
ADVOCATE: Yes they are!
BOARD MEMBER: We're going to treat them, don't you understand?
ADVOCATE: It closes in 6 days!
BOARD MEMBER: But alternative means are available!
ADVOCATE: They are not available!

Dialysis patients need the service three times a week to stay alive, and 25 or so of Grady's patients still don't know where they'll get that service after Sunday because they're uninsured. They and their families crowded the board meeting, overwhelmingly immigrants who speak little to no English.

Denise Williams, Senior Vice President of Operations at Grady, told the board that those patients won't be forgotten in the hospital's contract with a private provider.

WILLIAMS: Those remaining Fulton and DeKalb patients will likely be a part of our agreement with Fresenius. They will have options on Sept. 20th.

The center is closing because it loses between 2 and 4 million dollars a year, and its equipment is badly outdated. As of mid-July, it served 96 patients regularly. Grady has helped 50 find alternative solutions, transitioning those with insurance to private centers, locating some to other states that offer medicaid to undocumented immigrants, or even paying for one to return to her home country.

Grady Board chair Pete Correll tried to assure the remaining that they wouldn't be left behind... to no avail:

CORRELL: We are not going to be responsible for the death of the citizens of this community. We are not going to be responsible for the death of the citizens of this community.

One 26-year old patient who's gone to Grady's dialysis center since April says she doubts the promises. She immigrated from India 7 years ago. Because of her undocumented status in the US, WABE is not using her name:

PATIENT: They should have told us when they gave us the letter, that yes, you will get a place. Your treatment won't be stopped, you will get dialysis unless you get a fixed place. But they didn't say anything. Unless we get it, I don't believe it.

Advocates say that because of language barriers in most cases, it will take Grady more than 6 days to find individual solutions for each patient, and to arrange the logistics of getting them to their new locations. And even then, it's still unclear how long those private clinics will provide dialysis for these uninsured patients.

Odette Yousef, WABE News.