One Week on Job, New Grady CEO Suprised at Number Uninsured

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – At the end of his first week on the job, Grady Health Systems' new C-E-O says he's surprised at how many uninsured patients other area hospitals are redirecting to Grady's facilities. But Michael Young is still confident that with improvements, Grady will win enough paying patients to cover its costs.

Coming in, Young knew that Grady cares for a disproportionately high number of uninsured patients but this week took him by surprise:

YOUNG: I've been in the ER probably 20 hours so far this week, and a high number of those patients started elsewhere.

Before Grady, Young was CEO of Erie County Medical Center, a public hospital in Buffalo, New York, where that rarely happened:

YOUNG: Frankly, I'm just not used to seeing that, so I think the other hospitals boards need to do a gut-check on their mission and do a governmental check and look at their tax exemption and see if they're doing their fair share.

Young is working to decrease the amount of time it takes to get patients through the system, to bring employee salaries in line with industry standards, and to replace the hospital's outdated equipment.