Shafer: Long-Range Solution For Grady Must Include Bigger Role For Morehouse

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(9/20/07) Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, who is preparing legislation for next year to force a management realignment of Grady Hospital, says he believes the long-range solution to Grady’s problems must include a larger role for the Morehouse School of Medicine.

Emory Medical School provides most of the doctors for Grady, with Morehouse providing the rest. In recent weeks, Shafer has raised questions about some of the terms of the contract between Emory and Grady.

He said in an interview with InsiderAdvantage he was "grieved" that Morehouse's name keeps getting mentioned in connection with the controversy over Grady's relationship with Emory University.

A report issued last week by the nonpartisan Senate Research Office slammed the contract between Grady and Emory, saying that it is one-sided in Emory's favor with the financial benefits "flowing from Atlanta to Druid Hills."

But Shafer defended Morehouse's relationship with Grady.

"I have seen nothing to suggest that Morehouse has been anything other than a good steward and supportive partner of Grady Hospital," Shafer said. "In fact, I am convinced that any plan to save Grady will require a bigger role for Morehouse."

"Emory and Morehouse are both outstanding institutions, and they both provide Grady with excellent doctors," Shafer said. "But Morehouse does not own hospitals that compete with Grady. Morehouse's future is tied to Grady in a way that Emory's is not."

Morehouse leaders testified at a House study committee meeting last month that they may be forced to train their medical residents out-of-state if Grady were to close.

"That would be a blow not just to Morehouse, but to Georgia," Shafer said. "Morehouse is important because so many of its graduates stay here in Georgia to practice."

Shafer is white. Morehouse is a traditionally black institution.