Tough New Talk From Emory, Morehouse: Grady Crisis Must Be Resolved By End Of Year

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(11/14/07) There was tough new talk Tuesday from the two medical schools that provide the doctors to staff Grady Memorial Hospital, the cash-strapped trauma center whose trustees are due to vote late this month on a governance change.

Time is growing short to correct the problems, the president of Emory and the president of Morehouse School of Medicine wrote Tuesday in a joint letter to the chairman of the Grady Authority.

They said the situation must be resolved by the end of the calendar year, and warned they already are exploring alternative venues to train new doctors “so that we might be in a position to begin redeployment as necessary in the new year.”

The letter was signed by Emory’s James Wagner and Morehouse’s John Maupin. The letter went to Pamela Stephenson.

Grady is bleeding red ink, and top-level business leaders and state officials have called for turning its management over to a private, nonprofit corporation to take advantage of financial opportunities it cannot explore under its current structure and to remove day-to-day operations from political interference.

A report last spring indicated the hospital would have to close if it can’t staunch the bleeding. Emory and Morehouse are two of the biggest creditors. They argue they are owed a combined $63 million.

In Tuesday’s letter, the two hospital executives wrote that they must take steps to carry out their core missions - medical education, training, research and patient care - even while the struggle over Grady continues.

They said they are increasingly concerned about the ongoing budget uncertainty on recruitment, retention of faculty and recruitment of residents.

Time is growing short for Grady to move forward with governance and funding changes, they wrote, arguing the situation must be resolved by the end of the calendar year.

An Emory press release described the two medical schools’ time crunch like this:

“Under the terms of the National Resident Matching Program, teaching institutions identify the number of residency slots they can guarantee by the end of January. However, the process begins in September with prospective residents (fourth-year medical students who will shortly earn their MDs) applying for their preferred programs.

“Then institutions like Emory and MSM offer interviews and elective courses between November and January. At the end of January, prospective residents must specify their preferences in rank order. The teaching programs (in this case Emory and MSM) assume ongoing obligations to the residents who have "matched" for the terms of their residencies, which typically last for three to four years. New residency appointments begin nationwide on July 1 of each year. Emory alone has more than 375 residency and fellowship slots at Grady and MSM has 95.

The letter from the academic officials went on to say bluntly: "Even as the hospital authority continues its deliberations, Emory and Morehouse are compelled to explore alternative venues for our programs in the event those deliberations are unsuccessful. The process of reviewing alternatives is already under way, so that we might be in a position to begin redeployment as necessary in the new year."

It continued: "We remain cautiously optimistic that we will be able to preserve our historic and productive relationship that has benefited thousands of patients, the counties and the state as a whole."