Board passes Grady lease agreement
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
Like their Fulton County counterparts, DeKalb commissioners approved a lease agreement that would shift operational control of Grady Hospital to a new private nonprofit.
And as in Fulton, DeKalb lawmakers chose to tweak the final document before they signed the agreement.
The vote was 7-0.
Included in the conditions were negotiated amendments ranging from requiring the new board to provide DeKalb with accurate data each year on the number of county residents that receive care at Grady to requiring that at least two DeKalb residents serve on the new board.
It also requires the new board to hold public meetings and provide reports on its financial and quality performance.
The move marks another huge step in the management restructuring effort that began last year, an effort that has received equal parts praise and disgust.
Some say the private board, which brings with it state support and millions in business donations, is the only way to save the dying system.
Others who oppose the move say privatization will only serve business interests at the expense of patients and workers.
The agreement puts the day-to-day operations of the hospital system in control of the new, private board.
The Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority will still own the more than $1.5 billion in real estate and still conduct annual checks to make sure the new board is maintaining Grady’s historic mission of serving the poor and operating as a safety net hospital, said the authority’s attorney Louis Horne.
Any deviation from the lease agreement would be grounds for termination, Horne said.
Last week, dozens of supporters and opponents of the change gave commissioners Larry Johnson and Connie Stokes their thoughts in a public vent session.
Proponents of the plan say the noxious cocktail of rising health-care costs, increasing numbers of under and uninsured combined with funding levels that have remained flat have undermined the historic hospital.
Even DeKalb they say, which gives Grady $22 million a year, is not covering the more than 125,000 patients it sends the hospital every year who rack up more than $60 million annually in care.
"I believe this deal is the best and only viable option to strengthen Grady well into the future," said emergency room physician Arthur Kellerman, who has been with the system 14 years.
More than 50 Emory University and Morehouse College medical students, who are part of HeathStat or Health Students Taking Action Together, also supported moving forward with the lease agreement.
"The change will bring new players to the table and hundreds of millions of dollars. We need to act or the patient [Grady] will die," Kellerman said.
But for opponents to the plan, such as the Grady and New Grady coalitions, it’s been a frustrating process. Privatizing the hospital will only make it more secretive not less, they say.
"In the interest of open, transparent democracy, let this so called anonymous donor of $200 million be known," said former Grady doctor James Murtagh. "Who is this?"
While some officials acknowledge the gap between what DeKalb sends Grady and how much patients from the county cost the system, many indicated it’s time for the state to step up help fill the gaps created by counties such as Clayton, Douglas, Cobb and Gwinnett that cost Grady tens of millions but pay nothing.
"This is our biggest fight at the statehouse," said Rep. Stan Watson [D-Decatur], who seeks statewide funding of the hospital’s Level 1 trauma network. "The state does have a responsibility."
|
