Board Contemplates Grady Bailout

Days after being officially appointed, the 17-member nonprofit board of the Grady Hospital Corporation met for the first time on Monday and immediately began efforts to bail out the public hospital from its financial crisis.

Within 10 minutes of the meeting's start, the board chose retired Georgia Pacific Corp. chairman and chief executive officer Pete Correll, attorney and state Rep. Pamela Stephenson and director of QuadraMed Corp. and Sonic Innovations Inc. Robert Miller as its chairman, vice chairman and secretary.

By the end of the meeting, which lasted about half an hour, several committees had been created, the governing structure was in place and the meeting schedule for the rest of the year was approved.

"We got started," Correll said after the meeting. "We've got a good board, with common objectives and no hidden agendas."

Local and state leaders have been working for months to dig Grady out of a financial crisis. Last year the hospital was threatening to shut its doors, citing a $55 million deficit.

Grady's mission as a safety net hospital that serves mostly poor patients who cannot pay for their treatment has left it financially hobbled for decades. A task force gathered by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce at Grady's request _ and co-chaired by Correll _ recommended the switch to nonprofit governance to attract $300 million from the government and the business and philanthropic communities.

The Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority _ the entity that currently governs Grady _ and Fulton and DeKalb counties have all approved the lease agreement, which details the transition plan.

Correll gave the new board its marching orders: to run the hospital in a fiscally responsible way and meet its historic mission; to put a management team in place, evaluate and support its performance; and to raise money.

Already, $200 million has been promised from an anonymous donor who Correll said could be made public in the next week, when he expects the first of four $50 million payments to be put in escrow pending the signing of the lease agreement.

"You can read whose name is on the check," Correll quipped.

The nonprofit board has pledged to raise the remaining $100 million over the next four years. Correll said nonprofit governance of Grady is not intended to be a quick fix.

"This is not a Band-Aid solution," he said. "I don't think any of us signed up for that."

It is not clear whether Stephenson will remain as chief executive officer of Grady. She was appointed to the position on an interim basis in January after Otis Story resigned from the position. Correll signaled that the board may be looking for a candidate with more experience to run a hospital of Grady's size.

"This is a big, hard job," Correll said. "I think that with the proper funding, this board of directors and the support of the community, we can attract a very talented individual to come run it."

Given the magnitude of the challenge, Correll said, a "world-class hospital CEO" would be an ideal candidate, though he did not rule Stephenson out.

"If she wanted to be a candidate, she would certainly be a candidate," he said, adding that Stephenson will stay on as CEO at least through the commencement of the lease agreement.

The board's next meeting is on April 7 at 2 p.m. and is open to the public.