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Grady CEO speaks to Chamber
by Brian Egeston
be@brianwrites.com
Grady Health System CEO Michael Young took advantage of a captive audience June 1 during the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce First Monday lunch at the Marriot Perimeter Center. Young opened his address by telling DeKalb business leaders that the embattled hospital is getting healthy.
Grady continues to operate, Young explained, through the generosity of large private donations and public funding. Georgia Power gave Grady $3 million to renovate its burn center, which should be complete in approximately one month.
Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus gave Grady a $20 million gift to create the Marcus Stroke Center and the Marcus Trauma Center. Young said Grady is the second busiest stroke hospital in Atlanta. The gift will allow for the addition of a 20-bed stroke ICU facility, Young said.
Grady is no longer the hospital at which the greatest number of metro Atlanta babies are born. That distinction belongs to Northside. However, Grady is the only hospital with an ICU for high-risk expectant mothers according to Young. “We do all the high-risk deliveries. We have the high-end NICU as well. Both of my sons went through the neonatal unit,” Young said.
The hospital leader talked about Grady’s in-house successes: Waiting time is down two hours in the emergency room. The hospital has raised $272 million of a $345 million fundraising goal, much of which has come from the Woodruff Foundation. The admission rate is up 8 percent. “We made it so difficult God couldn’t come in [Grady]. You always had two more forms to [fill out] get in. We’ve fixed that.”
The hospital has cut operating costs by $60 million. Infection rate has been cut by two-thirds and the average stay has been cut by three days. By rebidding with vendors, Young said, pharmacy costs were reduced by $9 million and by upgrading its computer system, the hospital will save $4 million in computer maintenance, he added.Grady had equipment so old GE brought their new trainees to the hospital to teach them what antiquated machines looked like. With computer upgrades, Young said Grady will be moving from 1975 to 2012 and become the most modern hospital in Atlanta.
At one time, Grady had difficulty attracting nurses and was forced to use agency nurses. In the past eight months, Young said, Grady recruited more than 300 nurses and saw a dramatic decrease in overtime and no longer uses agency nurses. The change saved the hospital $10 million.
With all its accomplishments, Young said Grady still needs help–particularly from the state. “The governor could change things, with his pen,” said Young. Among its challenges, Young said physician recruitment is high on the list. Annually, Grady is providing $330 million in free health care, with some 15,000 free admissions and $65 million in free drugs.
To measure its success, Grady has started measuring itself against such hospitals as Johns Hopkins and the Cleveland Clinic. “If you want to be the best, you have to measure yourself against the best,” Young said.
DeKalb business leaders should be concerned about Grady, Young said, because businesses could see a hidden tax increase to compensate for monies needed to keep the hospital open. “If Grady does not make it, you will see an automatic increase in your health insurance costs,” Young said. “Without Grady, the 500,000 people that we serve would be raising hell. Over the years, the state would have had to provide tremendous medical assistance and support to keep those people from dying in the street. You can imagine what would have happened if there was no Grady.”
Grady’s trauma center, Young said, allows Atlanta to have Superbowls, SEC Championships and other large events that require cities to have a top-notch trauma center. Young cited a recent account of a man who needed eye surgery that he could not pay for. Without the $5,500 surgery, the man, who did not live in Fulton or DeKalb, would have gone blind. “If the man goes blind, he’ll be on disability and the state will take care of him for the rest of his life. We, of course, did the surgery.”
Young said business leaders can help by talking to politicians about state funding for Grady. “Where we really need help is with the governor and the rural constituency. They don’t think Grady is important to them. They think it’s intown poor people.” The Medical College of Georgia (MCG) gets $30 million a year from the state, according to Young. Despite being three times the size of MCG and doing five times the amount of indigent care, Grady doesn’t receive money from the state. “If we got the same $30 million that MCG receives for teaching…we’d actually be operating in the black.”
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