Errin Haines, AP, November 26, 2007
For generations, Grady Memorial Hospital has treated the poorest of the poor, victims of stabbings and shootings, and motorists grievously injured in Atlanta’s murderous rush-hour traffic.
Now, Grady itself is in grave condition.
Staggering under a deficit projected at $55 million, the city’s only public hospital could close at the end of the year, leaving Atlanta without a major trauma center and foisting thousands of poor people onto emergency rooms at other hospitals for their routine medical care.
{snip}
On Monday, Grady’s governing board of political appointees discussed turning day-to-day operation of the hospital over to a nonprofit board in hopes the move would attract big corporate donations and enable Grady to stay open.
Dozens of activists, doctors, clergy members, lawmakers and citizens packed an auditorium across from Grady and demanded to be heard before the board voted.
{snip}
Founded in 1892, Grady has struggled financially for years. But now it has reached a crisis because of rising health care costs, dwindling government aid, a lack of paying customers, and years of neglect—a situation not uncommon among urban hospitals like Grady that primarily serve the needy.
In addition to losing money on patient care, Grady needs an estimated $300 million to repair and modernize its buildings and acquire new equipment such as CT scanners and an up-to-date computer system.
The loss of Grady would be unconscionable to many political and civic leaders in this booming metropolitan area of 5 million people. The overwhelming majority of the 900,000 patients treated at Grady each year are poor and black, and the institution is considered a vital part of Atlanta’s black community.
But the proposed switch to a nonprofit governing board is problematic, too. Some fear that the hospital would be less committed to the poor, and that the board would go from mostly black to mostly white.
[Sen. Vincent] Fort, a black Democrat from Atlanta, said earlier that Grady is “absolutely critical” to the city’s black poor. And he charged that Atlanta’s “white power structure”—including the business leaders and politicians who are pushing for the nonprofit board—is trying to orchestrate a takeover.
“To the extent that you have African American doctors, nurses and other professionals operating a big-city hospital and taking care of black people, that is a source of pride in the black community,” Fort said. “So there is a great deal of skepticism that the Chamber of Commerce is interested in Grady. There are some of us who believe that is a self-interest.”
{snip}
Besides Atlanta’s poor, Grady’s patients include tourists passing through on their way south to Walt Disney World and victims of auto accidents, since Grady is the only hospital in a 100-mile radius of Atlanta that has a Level 1 trauma center, capable of treating the most serious injuries. (A popular bumper sticker seen on cars along Atlanta-area highways reads: “If I’m in a car crash, take me to Grady.”)
{snip}
Grady also has the state’s only poison control center, obstetrics intensive care unit and comprehensive sickle cell center. And the city’s emergency command center for handling plane crashes and terrorist attacks is based at Grady.
If Grady were to close, poor people would probably swamp other hospitals’ ERs with everything from ordinary colds to genuine medical emergencies.
{snip}
Doctors, activists, lawmakers, business leaders and the hospital leadership are scrambling to find a fix for Grady, which gets most of its funding from Medicare, Medicaid and Fulton and Dekalb Counties and is run by a governing board whose members are appointed by the two counties’ politicians.
In July, a 17-member task force of business leaders recommended the shift to a nonprofit board. Some of Atlanta’s major corporations have said they would contribute to Grady if it were run by a nonprofit board because it would manage the hospital more efficiently.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on November 27, 2007)
Comments
How can this hospital be a “Great sense of pride to African-Americans when it’s the White taxpayers that are paying for it to begin with! Here’s just one more thing that Blacks will say is their contribution when such a boasting is ersatz at best, and stealing at worst. Besides, who do you think trained all those “Black” (read: mulatto) doctors and nurses, Jesse Jackson?
Posted by White is Beautiful Robert at 6:08 PM on November 27
Yeah, it would be a shame to lose that “comprehensive sickle cell center.”
Posted by at 6:14 PM on November 27
And if this supposed “white power structure” doesn’t take over the hospital, and it fails, then the town’s civil rights rabble-rousers would be complaining about the “Racism” in their not having taken it over to save it.
Posted by St. Louis CofCC Blogmeister at 6:28 PM on November 27
In Contrast, many Blacks in collapsing Zimbabwe would like to see the return of the “White Power Structure” that served them better than today’s corrupt Black ‘leaders’.
Posted by at 6:29 PM on November 27
The hospital is broke, the patients are black and poor, Whitey offers to bail them out and the blacks want to retain control? What’s wrong with this picture? And how ‘bout that bumper sticker? How about “If I’m in a car crash, take me to Rufus’ house, clean out the ashtray, get my Glock and ditch my ride”!
Posted by at 6:36 PM on November 27
Most if not all of the poor have Medicaid (state funded health insurance) and are seen as paying costumers by the hospital systems. Grady is not overwhelmed by “the poor” as by the illegal immigrants who are not eligible for state supported Medicaid insurance.
Posted by Tim at 6:37 PM on November 27
It’s comical in a way that these assorted black nabobs in Atlanta are so het up about Grady’s being taken over by the so-called “white power structure.” Since when is there any such power structure left in Atlanta these days, with its population so heavily African? And if the board that runs the hospital had not been mostly black for many years, the hospital would not be facing the state of disastrous collapse it’s now in. Bring in a white board, the sooner the better!
Posted by Wayne Engle at 6:59 PM on November 27
“Founded in 1892, Grady has struggled financially for years.”
I’m guessing that these problems arose in the last 30-40 years.
“murderous rush-hour traffic.”
A perfect description of getting caught in the wrong part of town.
Posted by Jeremy Douglas at 7:01 PM on November 27
Let the blacks have their hospital.Why do Whites always save the blacks from their misery and failures? Sit back and enjoy the destruction.
Posted by NordicPhile at 7:39 PM on November 27
““To the extent that you have African American doctors, nurses and other professionals operating a big-city hospital and taking care of black people, that is a source of pride in the black community,””
The place is going under and they still refer to it as a source of pride?
Posted by GetBackJack at 8:11 PM on November 27
“[Sen. Vincent] Fort, a black Democrat from Atlanta, said earlier that Grady is “absolutely critical” to the city’s black poor. And he charged that Atlanta’s “white power structure”—including the business leaders and politicians who are pushing for the nonprofit board—is trying to orchestrate a takeover.”
RK: Well, here’s another hateful, racist, anti-white statement by a black that goes unchallenged by the MSM, and the spineless politicians.
If all the doctors and nurses are black, somebody tell me why the trauma unit and the other advanced features at the facility are of any good to the black staff who have worthless affirmative action degrees, and can’t effectively utilize the equipment at their disposal.
Quite frankly, since all black urban areas are combat zones I think Atlanta needs only the services of several military medics, working in the field, drawn from the military, assigned to temporary duty. So the blacks there won’t try to kill white medics, which they would surely do, whites couldn’t be used. But I’m pretty sure the army could give a few hundred blacks the same kind of sub-standard medical training they receive on all the other affirmative action programs the military has.
Mobile Army Surgical Units could be positioned in tents wherever they could be guarded effectively to prevent attacks by the criminal elements in order to obtain drugs to sell on the street, staffed only by blacks so the black political hack, Fox, wouldn’t have to endure looking at whites.
But I doubt they will take up my suggestion, because they’re far too arrogant for that. What they want is an inflow of billions from whitey to keep their incompetents working and the doors open. Afterwards I’m sure they will insist that whitey via his MSM and butt-kissing politicians highlight the hospital as a black success story, so no mention that white money is propping it up must be made.
Everybody must pretend that it is strictly a black success story. Then the self-hating whites will come out with their “stats,” revealing that the black run hospital is more efficient than any white hospitable in the country and that blacks kept in going all by themselves and that any criticism by whites about black incompetence is a myth.
If anybody points out that the staff is incompetent, citing horror stories, and that the economic situation of the hospital is a disaster, plus many deaths occur because of that incompetence, and that white money is the crutch holding things upright, they will be denounced as haters, racists, and bigots, jealous of black success.
What this black Senator wants is what all of the black leadership wants. They want a socialist or communist system in this country, one that appoints on a bean counting basis, so that blacks do not have to earn positions, because they can’t, and they are instead awarded slots strictly on the basis of race. That’s why they like Castro and communism so much.
In such a political entity they can then coo and purr that black is beautiful and that blacks are the equal of whites, I mean, after all, they would say they have proportionately as many doctors and other professional people as whites and others. And no mention at all will be made of the fact that they did not earn the positions, but were awarded them, and anyone crass enough to say otherwise will be prosecuted for racial hatred.
So the bottom line to all of this amounts to more than a failing hospital with a sub par staff. It’s a demand to be held in high esteem for failing, and pretending it is just another example of black superiority.
Posted by Robert Kelly at 8:21 PM on November 27
“Founded in 1892, Grady has struggled financially for years. But now it has reached a crisis because of rising health care costs, dwindling government aid, a lack of paying customers, and years of neglect—a situation not uncommon among urban hospitals like Grady that primarily serve the needy.”
Every county or city needs a public hospital and health clinic for the uninsured or struggling. How about cutting massive foreign aid spending and getting rid of the expensive illegals and using these funds to help the AMERICAN people for a change.
Posted by KC at 8:27 PM on November 27
The short opening sentence includes the terms/words: poorest of the poor, stabbings, shootings, murderous.
I wasn’t sure if they were talking about the hospital or the rich culture of downtown ATL, the “black Mecca.”
Posted by ZKR at 8:42 PM on November 27
Thing is, other hospital groups around Atlanta have already been taking up slack for Grady over the last decade, so any claims that the poor, etc won’t get healthcare are totally bogus. The issue here is about control. The people in control now, the ones running the operation into the ground with sweetheart deals and groundless “promotions” of cronies don’t want to give up control because the likely audit of the books will reveal enough to put most of them out of work and some of them in jail. They would rather see Grady closed first, which is likely if the REAL numbers are made known.
GH
Posted by Grob Hahn at 9:20 PM on November 27
“[Sen. Vincent] Fort, a black Democrat from Atlanta, said earlier that Grady is “absolutely critical” to the city’s black poor. And he charged that Atlanta’s “white power structure”—including the business leaders and politicians who are pushing for the nonprofit board—is trying to orchestrate a takeover.”
Senator Fort makes a valid point, one that 60’s 70’s era White politicians (now in power) should listen to and to learn from.
There is simply no need to continue implementing the old fashioned and proven harmful integration social theories. The “Black” community now has all the means necessary for “Blacks” to conduct their own affairs in accordance with the unique “culture” that they possess. From advanced brain surgeons, to prognosticators of Whitey’s failure regarding his interference in their affairs, to the “Black” cop on the beat, the “Black” community has shown not only a willingness to conduct their own affairs , but they also express the demand (often violent) to be able to live amongst their own kind and to manage their own affairs.
Pharaoh eventually learned the sore lesson that he needed to let them people go lest they were to destroy him and his people. Perhaps its about time for our White political class to emulate his actions before they cause any more damage to be done to us.
Ronald
Posted by Ronald at 9:28 PM on November 27
Are the white people in Georgia and around Atlanta angry that Atlanta is occupied and devastated by the blacks there now?
Posted by Young, White, Hot and Conservative at 9:53 PM on November 27
“The place is going under and they still refer to it as a source of pride?”
I’m afraid you don’t get it; as long as government money ie. funds from non-black taxpayers flows, Blacks will be the beneficiaries. That’s why Black corruption is hardly ever cause for Blacks to vote a Black politician out of office.
There is NO downside to Black incompetence vis-a-vis spending whitey’s money in a wasteful manner.
Posted by at 10:02 PM on November 27
“Why do Whites always save the blacks from their misery and failures?”
See Book of Acts, Chapter 4, Verse 32.
Posted by at 10:08 PM on November 27
As many people pointed out a few days ago while discussing the story about the death of Ian Smith, blacks would rather live in a hell run by themselves than a heaven run by whites. This is the perfect example of this type of thinking. Apparently it is more important to maintain black control of the hospital than it is to give sick blacks the best care possible.
Posted by Conrad R. at 10:27 PM on November 27
Not so different with what occured at Martin Luther King hospital in Los Angeles. Can’t say I am in the least bit surprised.
Posted by at 10:29 PM on November 27
Let the ” blacks ” have their way. More in grave condition, the safer whites are in their environment.
Posted by Michigan patriot at 10:54 PM on November 27
A popular bumper sticker seen on cars along Atlanta-area highways reads: “If I’m in a car crash, take me to Grady.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Could it be that Errin misread that bumper sticker? Or are there that many suicidal folks in Atlanta?
Posted by at 11:22 PM on November 27
Let the blacks have their own hospital, with their own staff. As long as THEY are the fnding source for this, we are all better off. The problem is, how do you get blacks to fund this? Perhaps a call to Oprah, Tiger and Michael? They all have the millions and billions.
Any form of self-segregation is good in the long run. If there were enough black self-segregation, we could simply have all the blacks relocate to Georgia, then grant Georgia independence as an all-black homeland.
In that case, if there were one state in the vanguard, others would follow. We could re-organize the USA into black, white, Latino, and mixed states. We would then all be happier that way, and the blacks would cease to be a drain on white taxpayers - if they had their own country.
Posted by WesternMan at 11:43 PM on November 27
Some fear that the hospital would be less committed to the poor, and that the board would go from mostly black to mostly white.
I worry every day that many of the cherished institutions in this country will go from mostly White to mostly non-white. But will the AP ever print such concern with the same legitimacy as they printed the above quote? When a black laments openly about too much Whiteness, it’s portrayed by the press (such as the AP) as a legitimate political concern, but if a White person were to express the converse concern, he or she would be portrayed as a horrible racist.
“To the extent that you have African American doctors, nurses and other professionals operating a big-city hospital and taking care of black people, that is a source of pride in the black community,” Fort said.
If these black “professionals” are so competent at running this hospital, why is it such an utter mess? I say let them continue running this disastrous operation without the interference of the “white power structure” (whatever that is) until it goes completely bankrupt. As usual, us Whites are trying to rescue blacks from a disaster of their own making, and rather than being thanked for it, we are treated with derision and scorn by those we try to help.
Besides Atlanta’s poor, Grady’s patients include tourists passing through on their way south to Walt Disney World and victims of auto accidents,…
Note to self: always fly to Florida.
Posted by Kevin at 11:49 PM on November 27
Poster Grob Hahn is correct about blacks wanting to maintain power because of graft. It happened in Las Vegas:
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=5946007
A white board would discover massive embezzelment and corruption. Felony indictments would ensue…
Posted by at 3:05 AM on November 28
My (late white) best friend gave birth to her 2nd child in ‘90 at Grady. Her mom warned me not to go visit her there, although she herself went. I followed my friend’s mom’s advice and have never felt guilty.
Fort is a racist, hypocritical crybaby who fussed when a judge overturned GA’s hate crime laws 3 yrs. ago, so what can one expect from him?
Posted by Cindy at 8:34 AM on November 28
Per Fort’s comment, contact him here:
vfort@legis.state.ga.us
cc: his pals
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/peo_list.pl?List=stsenatedl
This is like the South African airlines story. They can’t manage themselves, don’t want to admit it, but here come the white people to sort out their mess for them.
Posted by mindmo at 10:18 AM on November 28
The point about Drew/King in LA is right on. Even the LA Times reporters couldn’t ignore the outrageous corruption of the Black power structure that ran the hospital. There were so many no-show jobs that it almost seemed that the Mob was running it.
I wonder if an audit of Grady will show the same waste and fraud along with the shoddy care many of Drew/King’s patients suffered. While spokesmen for the Black community praise Grady’s prestige in the Black community, one needs remember that it is the members of this community that suffer from the problems created by that cohort that feels entitled to their positions.
Posted by George at 10:39 AM on November 28
Seal, Heidi Klum, Majic Johnson, David Bowie, Akeem the Dream, Barry Bonds, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Oprah need to get with the times and have a concert, fashion show and basketball demonstration to raise the funds needed to keep this Black Hospital operational.
There would be plenty of sponsors for the premier 2 hour TV special where Madonna and friends can reminisce and entertain with instant replays and video clips showing the greatest of the great doing with a style never ever duplicated, no matter how hard they try, by the brain dead white zombies who love them and secretly wish they were so incredibly hip.
Posted by at 10:48 AM on November 28
“dwindling government aid, a lack of paying customers,”
Sounds like every public hospital in America. Hordes of immigrants that pay nothing, medi-cal reimburses the hospital $1,000 for treatment that costs say $8,000.
If it costs 100 million per year to run a hospital and the hospital only takes in 40 million per year it is bound to go bankrupt.
Maybe Grady should sue Tyson, Cargill and all the other employers of uninsured immigrants who dump their employees on the public dole for health care.
Posted by at 11:33 AM on November 28
As I indicated in an earlier posting this country is headed for the same end as the old Soviet Union. When the country finally goes bankrupt and breaks up like the old Soviet Union did California and the border areas of the Southwest will revert to Mexico.
Hopefully we can then partition the rest of the country into seperate white and black nations. Diversity simply doesn’t work and our political, financial and legal elites either refuse to look at the evidence of its failure or are in complete denial about it.
Posted by tacitus at 1:04 PM on November 28
They made their ( hospital ) bed; let them lie in it.
Posted by Michigan patriot at 1:21 PM on November 28
What needs to be understood about “black enterprise” that serves the public, is that there is no importance given to profit and solvency of the BUSINESS, only the salaries and perks of the WORKFORCE is important to those connected to the enterprise. There is a lack of understanding of basic business principles (apparently even on the part of ‘highly educated’ doctors and health ‘professionals’), that financial solvency is a mandate. This comes from the many years of witness to ‘The Great Society’, and its’ bottomless pit of public money that “the government’ doles out whenever needed.
The mindset here is “So the hospital can’t make money? So what? Just have the gobment pay for everything so that this venable institution can remain in black control, serving blacks. It’s gobment’s duty.
Posted by Ray Cist at 4:53 PM on November 28
What do you get when you combine an incompetent, corrupt black power structure, incompetent black doctors and nurses and masses of indigents? You get “black pride”—sounds like this is one more white supported bit of black self-empowerment(isn’t there a contradiction there?). LA has not only indigent blacks but masses of illegal hispanics who are not covered by medicaide in all cases.
The story is the same everywhere in this country. There is not a single black run hospital which is not on the verge of financial collapse or supported by white tax payers. Perhaps, just perhaps this has something to do with IQ and a culture of incompetence and corruption allowed to thrive through white hand outs.
Posted by at 4:57 PM on November 28
Why not put 10,000 “trained to be polite”black males on the streets,Philadelphia is doing it,look for this in a town near you!
Posted by at 6:05 PM on November 28
It’s “a source of pride” to the black community but it’s not paid for by the black community.
Posted by at 6:19 PM on November 28
They can save a ton of money by firing all the white workers and importing witch doctors from Africa.
Posted by N. J. MOE at 7:23 PM on November 28
The main thing that the Blacks are worried about as a result of a “white takeover” is that the hospital will cease to be a jobs program and a free ride for almost all of the employees…make no mistake. They could not care less about the “poor” black, white or Mexican. They are only concerned with their own jobs. This is most certainly true of the “board members” and the black politicians who benefit directly from their cozy associations with them.
This situation echoes and foreshadows the issues that are coming to a head in Atlanta…mainly that most blacks are incapable of running complex business, governmental and public-service structures. The county governments of Fulton, Dekalb, Clayton and the other counties in the metro area are awash in scandal, theft, and utter incompetence. There are daily reports in the AJC about government and business leaders who are outright thieves…but criticism is entirely forbidden. To do so would be considered “racist.”
Ask any black in Atlanta and they will probably tell you that their biggest fear is being made by a white manager to put in an honest day’s work. I work for a large Federal facility in Atlanta and I can tell you without a doubt that most blacks that I work with have a sole desire in this world to avoid as much work as possible. They turn work avoidance into a high art form…If Grady were to be managed by whites the days of graft and shiftlessness would come to a swift end and hospital employees would have to actually lift a finger to get something accomplished. In addition the higher up blacks who are responsible for contracting out bids for the hospital would lose all their kick-backs. If you doubt my words please come to our fair city and observe the way ANY business or government facility is run. What you will witness is a sea of disinterested faces gabbing away incessantly on cell phones. If you dare interrupt a conversation with a legitimate request you are greeted immediately with a sharp dose of attitude that firmly reminds you that they are not at all happy because you are making them actually do their job. It’s quite an experience…
To drive by Grady is to see a piece of the Third World right here in the good ol’ USA. There is a continuous column of homeless people who are streaming in and out of the hospital. It is right down the street from Georgia State University and I feel for any hapless student who might take a wrong turn on the way to a lecture…for to do so would open their eyes to a sorrowful parade of the zombie-like wash-outs of society who inhabit the streets of the ATL.
Posted by WestSider at 9:12 PM on November 30
Communism coming to a hospital near you. Please stay healthy folks.
Posted by Lars at 11:03 PM on December 2
