Perdue, Cagle Slam Door On Grady Resolution - But Neither Giving Up On Helping To Solve Problem

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(11/28/07) Top state officials slammed the door Tuesday on a resolution adopted less than 24 hours earlier by Grady trustees that was supposed to transition the cash-strapped hospital into a nonprofit status. But Gov. Sonny Perdue said he's exploring some options to help trauma care hospitals like Grady, and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said there’s still time to devise a cure for the Atlanta institution.

"I have no intention of signing an unenforceable document that seeks to bind the state to a specific, annual appropriation," Perdue said in a statement issued through his press office, thus rejecting a portion of the resolution requiring a firm committment from top state officials for specific sums of money as a quid pro quo for the conversion.

“The Legislature, the governor, the lieutenant governor, the Speaker aren’t going to be bound by an authority or a governmental authority,” Cagle said Tuesday in a news conference.

But both said they will continue to work on the problem.

Perdue said he is working with Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson on funding solutions for a trauma network that undoubtedly would help Grady.

And Cagle said: "I’m very committed ... to work to a resolve. We’re making progress in that effort and I’m very hopeful and encouraged that we can get to a resolve before the Legislature comes into action.”

Even so, both said converting to nonprofit status is the proper step for the financially-troubled hospital.

"From the start, I have expressed my belief that Grady Memorial Hospital, like most other public, urban hospitals in Georgia, will benefit from a corporate restructuring," Perdue said in his statement.

Cagle told reporters that delay in reaching a settlement “is only causing a greater degree of turmoil” and said again - as he did on Aug. 16 - that if Grady fails to convert to nonprofit governance the Legislature will force the change upon the board. “I think it’s very likely the Legislature will take action in the event Grady does not act,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson also weighed-in on the resolution, passed by the authority Monday night as a rowdy, hostile audience hooted and jeered in opposition.

“They are not in a position to negotiate. A condemned man is not in a position to demand his last meal,” Johnson declared.

Sen. David Shafer, who last August began circulating legislation to force the change on Grady, said: “"Conversion to nonprofit management is the essential first step. They keep shuffling their feet but they will not move forward. I plan to pre-file several bills concerning Grady, including one that will require the nonprofit conversion."

And there was this from Speaker Glenn Richardson's spokeswoman, Clelia Davis, who said that the "attempt by the board of Grady Hospital to control the Legislature is simply unacceptable. This is not a negotiation."

The resolution calls for Grady’s trustees to turn over day-to-day operation to a nonprofit, but only if certain conditions are met.

Among other things, the state’s three top leaders would have to sign documents pledging further state support to Grady, and the metro business leaders who promised to open the money vaults would have to sign documents committing to do so.

Also, Emory would have to agree to open new contract negotiations which would include the possibility of allowing outside doctors to practice at Grady.

Cagle talked about the resolution during a press availability.

“There’s a lot in their resolution that still has to be worked through and there are many, many moving parts to the issue,” he said. “Hopefully we will have it resolved before January before we come into session. The worst-case scenario is that we come into session and not have a resolution moving forward, because I think the mood of the Legislature is to ensure Grady stays viable and maybe change would be in order.”

“Ultimately, we’ve got to have a new business model for Grady and they have to have a financial statement that really can sustain themselves,” he said. “They’ve taken one step that I think is certainly in the right direction.”