When I read it this morning, I couldn't believe what I was reading. The whole idea is so corrupt and absurd even a business school class wouldn't study something like this. It's too absurd to imagine being done in real life. The UAW, the United Auto Workers, will now become majority shareholders in Chrysler and significant shareholders in GM. Meanwhile, the U.S. government will become majority shareholders in GM. What Fiat is thinking in merging with Chrysler I can't figure out.
So, the man that only two weeks ago said he had no plans of running an automobile company is now on the brink of becoming the biggest shareholder in GM (that's the president). Meanwhile, the UAW will now represent both the workers and the management. This sort of corrupt conflict of interest is the type of thing I covered in the Grady scandal and Robert Brown, then head of the board of Grady Hospital, rewarded his own architecture firm several sweetheart contracts. Now, we are going to have the same party represent both labor and management. Think about it. We are going to have a government deeply tied to the unions as the majority owner of GM and the unions themselves will be the second biggest owner.
The UAW has been a significant and early supporters of the President. Just think about the dust up created by the ties between Dick Cheney and Halliburton during the Iraq War. Now, we have a president that was supported significantly by a union, and he's in the middle of orchestrating a deal in which the exact same union gains signficant control over two automakers. This is brazen Chicago style corruption and it's right in front of us.
This is the sort of corruption the MSM claimed just about each and everyday the Bush administration was engaged in. Now, it is being done right in front of us and no one is pointing out the obvious. Everyone is looking at this with peculiarity. It isn't peculiar. It's corrupt. This is payback plain and simple. The president rejected an earlier restructuring plan, fired the CEO, and now he's on board with a plan that gives the unions 40% control of the company. The worst part is that this isn't done in some backroom and hidden from the public. He's doing it right in front of everyone. He's brazenly paying off the unions, and he's doing it with a major announcement that the entire press corps can write about. The president is able to do all of this because he knows that the majority of the press corp will pay no attention to the obscene corruption that he is laying out right in front of them.
Showing posts with label Robert Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Brown. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Friday, December 19, 2008
The Sociopathic Politician
The other evening over at a friend's house, he had that day's Wall Street Journal. On the front page was yet another story about Rod Blagojevich. In our discussion of Blagojevich, I referred to him as a textbook case of a Sociopath...
In a matter of fact tone, my friend said that he felt all politicians were Sociopaths. While this maybe an overstatement, in many ways politics breeds Sociopaths. First, a politician's job is ultimately to get re elected. The art of getting re elected is ultimately as selfish a process as they get. You aren't ever necessarily doing what's right but rather what you think the most people will find suitable, acceptable, or worthy of getting their vote next time. Politicians make decisions almost always based on the politics of a situation not the policy. The politics of any situation is always based on self interest not the interest of the public at large. Such a mindset breeds the sort of selfishness that is inherent in Sociopaths.
Second, politics is in essence all about the accumulation of power. Power is is a zero sum activity. As such, the process of accumulating power involves taking power away from someone else: opponents, citizens, etc. The process of accumulating power is also inherently selfish in a way that breeds Sociopaths. Furthermore, most Sociopaths are not only charming but extremely manipulative and both of those are traits most successful politicians.
The Sociopathic politician with which I am most familiar with is an individual out of Georgia by the name of Vernon Jones. Jones is suspected in six rapes since the mid 1980's. The last of which was described to my by a source I consider very reliable in graphic detail involving a three some gone wrong. This happened Christmas a few years back.
Jones, for many years, was CEO of DeKalb County in Georgia. He used this position to get inside information on many land deals that became profitable for himself. In his role as CEO of DeKalb County, he was also responsible for choosing the members of the board of Grady Hospital. He made Robert Brown head of the board for several years. Brown then used Grady on multiple occasions as piggy bank directing business from Grady to the architecture firm he owned. Meanwhile, Grady has gone through multiple bouts of financial dire straits while members of the board, like Brown, have seen enormous wealth for themselves.
Jones also oversaw one of the most corrupt police departments in the country, the Dekalb County Police Department. In 2001, while he was CEO of DeKalb County, Sheriff Elect Derwin Brown was murdered by the outgoing Sheriff Syd Dorsey. This was the culmination of decades of corruption at the DeKalb County Police Department including nearly a decade on his watch. Jones proceeded to install Thomas Brown (no relation), one of his cronies, to replace the deceased Derwin Brown. Thomas Brown proceeded to make nothing more than cosmetic changes to the department. The jail nearly built the penthouse of prisons for Dorsey until that was discovered and broken by an investigative journalist. In 2006, his opponent for CEO of DeKalb County, Ron Marshall, was followed, had unwarranted background checks done, and eventually Marshall mysteriously wound up in the Terror Watch List.
Finally, I believe that Jones is involved in the cover up of the apparent suicide of Charles Hicks using another one of his cronies, Donald Frank, to cover up a homicide. Frank wound up serving as Jones' Homeland Security Director for DeKalb County. He did all of this while he was supposed to be running the County of DeKalb.
The behavior of Blagojevich can also be classified as textbook Sociopathic. Nearly everything he has done while in office has been for self benefit at the expense of the public. All the corruption, bribery, and quid pro quos, have been done in order to gain personal wealth, power, and influence, and all at the expense of the public he has served.
For real horror stories of what terror a Sociopathic politician can breed, we need to look at any despot around the world. Sociopaths like Hitler, Stalin, and Hussein all brought terror to their own people and their neighbors for decades. All of these folks were so consumed by power that anyone that stood in their way was eliminated. Entire populations were subverted, eliminated, or put down in order so that the Sociopathic tyrant could maintain power. My grandfather got a first hand lesson in the terror of a Sociopathic politician. Joseph Stalin put my grandfather into a Siberian gulag for the better part of the next two decades on the eve of WWII. My grandfather's crimes were two 1) he was Jewish and 2)he ran a successful corner store in a small Siberian village. These two things made my grandfather a threat and a target, and Stalin felt the need to eliminate him. My grandfather paid for Stalin's Sociopathy with nearly twenty years of his life.
Everyday, citizens everywhere pay the price for the deeds of Sociopathic politicians. We pay for it with higher taxes. We pay for it with a bureaucracy that looks out for the interests of power brokers rather than the public. We pay for it by having a government full of waste, and one that looks out for special interests rather than the interests of the public at large. We pay for it by having corruption swept under the rug and overlooked. Of course, in the most extreme, citizens pay for it with their loss of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The Sociopathic politician is a cancer to any political system and unfortunately the nature of the beast breeds such an individual. As such, we, the voters, must always be aware of it and be able to identify all Sociopathic politicians. Such a combination has explosive possibilities.
defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: "The essential feature for the diagnosis is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood."[1] Deceit and manipulation are considered essential features of the disorder. Therefore, it is essential in making the diagnosis to collect material from sources other than the individual being diagnosed.
In a matter of fact tone, my friend said that he felt all politicians were Sociopaths. While this maybe an overstatement, in many ways politics breeds Sociopaths. First, a politician's job is ultimately to get re elected. The art of getting re elected is ultimately as selfish a process as they get. You aren't ever necessarily doing what's right but rather what you think the most people will find suitable, acceptable, or worthy of getting their vote next time. Politicians make decisions almost always based on the politics of a situation not the policy. The politics of any situation is always based on self interest not the interest of the public at large. Such a mindset breeds the sort of selfishness that is inherent in Sociopaths.
Second, politics is in essence all about the accumulation of power. Power is is a zero sum activity. As such, the process of accumulating power involves taking power away from someone else: opponents, citizens, etc. The process of accumulating power is also inherently selfish in a way that breeds Sociopaths. Furthermore, most Sociopaths are not only charming but extremely manipulative and both of those are traits most successful politicians.
The Sociopathic politician with which I am most familiar with is an individual out of Georgia by the name of Vernon Jones. Jones is suspected in six rapes since the mid 1980's. The last of which was described to my by a source I consider very reliable in graphic detail involving a three some gone wrong. This happened Christmas a few years back.
Jones, for many years, was CEO of DeKalb County in Georgia. He used this position to get inside information on many land deals that became profitable for himself. In his role as CEO of DeKalb County, he was also responsible for choosing the members of the board of Grady Hospital. He made Robert Brown head of the board for several years. Brown then used Grady on multiple occasions as piggy bank directing business from Grady to the architecture firm he owned. Meanwhile, Grady has gone through multiple bouts of financial dire straits while members of the board, like Brown, have seen enormous wealth for themselves.
Jones also oversaw one of the most corrupt police departments in the country, the Dekalb County Police Department. In 2001, while he was CEO of DeKalb County, Sheriff Elect Derwin Brown was murdered by the outgoing Sheriff Syd Dorsey. This was the culmination of decades of corruption at the DeKalb County Police Department including nearly a decade on his watch. Jones proceeded to install Thomas Brown (no relation), one of his cronies, to replace the deceased Derwin Brown. Thomas Brown proceeded to make nothing more than cosmetic changes to the department. The jail nearly built the penthouse of prisons for Dorsey until that was discovered and broken by an investigative journalist. In 2006, his opponent for CEO of DeKalb County, Ron Marshall, was followed, had unwarranted background checks done, and eventually Marshall mysteriously wound up in the Terror Watch List.
Finally, I believe that Jones is involved in the cover up of the apparent suicide of Charles Hicks using another one of his cronies, Donald Frank, to cover up a homicide. Frank wound up serving as Jones' Homeland Security Director for DeKalb County. He did all of this while he was supposed to be running the County of DeKalb.
The behavior of Blagojevich can also be classified as textbook Sociopathic. Nearly everything he has done while in office has been for self benefit at the expense of the public. All the corruption, bribery, and quid pro quos, have been done in order to gain personal wealth, power, and influence, and all at the expense of the public he has served.
For real horror stories of what terror a Sociopathic politician can breed, we need to look at any despot around the world. Sociopaths like Hitler, Stalin, and Hussein all brought terror to their own people and their neighbors for decades. All of these folks were so consumed by power that anyone that stood in their way was eliminated. Entire populations were subverted, eliminated, or put down in order so that the Sociopathic tyrant could maintain power. My grandfather got a first hand lesson in the terror of a Sociopathic politician. Joseph Stalin put my grandfather into a Siberian gulag for the better part of the next two decades on the eve of WWII. My grandfather's crimes were two 1) he was Jewish and 2)he ran a successful corner store in a small Siberian village. These two things made my grandfather a threat and a target, and Stalin felt the need to eliminate him. My grandfather paid for Stalin's Sociopathy with nearly twenty years of his life.
Everyday, citizens everywhere pay the price for the deeds of Sociopathic politicians. We pay for it with higher taxes. We pay for it with a bureaucracy that looks out for the interests of power brokers rather than the public. We pay for it by having a government full of waste, and one that looks out for special interests rather than the interests of the public at large. We pay for it by having corruption swept under the rug and overlooked. Of course, in the most extreme, citizens pay for it with their loss of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The Sociopathic politician is a cancer to any political system and unfortunately the nature of the beast breeds such an individual. As such, we, the voters, must always be aware of it and be able to identify all Sociopathic politicians. Such a combination has explosive possibilities.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Grady Hospital and the Auto Bailout
Last year, I did a lot of coverage of the scandal surrounding Grady Hospital. By the end of 2007, Grady Hospital, much like the automakers, which had also hemorrhaged cash for years, was in need of a relatively massive bailout. Grady Hospital was asking anyone, tax payers included, for about a quarter of a billion Dollars. Defenders of bailing out Grady Hospital pointed out that Grady was vital to the Atlanta area community. They pointed out that it became a fixture in the Atlanta area, and that the community would be devastated without it. The defense for bailing out Grady Hosptial was best summed up by this New York Times piece.
The defense for bailing out Grady Hospital was that it did good work, it was vital to the neighborhood, and the health care crisis its closing would unleash is intolerable. Every argument defenders of bailing out Grady made were technically accurate. Grady Hospital did do a lot of good work in the community, what hospital doesn't. It is vital to the Atlanta area community. Of course it is. It's one of the three largest hospitals in the country. That is the nature of the beast with a hospital that size. It would unleash a health care crisis if it were closed, and I said as much. Grady Hospital is a roughly one thousand bed hospital that serves almost exclusively the indigent, the poor. Without it, the poor would be unleashed on a health care system that has no desire to treat them.
All of these points were also, frankly, beside the point. By the time this crisis had exploded so that Grady was on the brink of running out of money, I had developed contacts with whistle blowers and activists and so I had a unique perch in understanding why Grady Hospital was in a position to need so much cash. Grady was being run for the benefit of those running it at the expense of its own viability. Grady had for years been corrupted so that it became a nearly endless money pit for the corruptors. Grady was hemorrhaging cash because it was being weighed down by a series of contracts and obligations that benefitted the other side far more than it benefitted Grady. Grady paid $50 million to Emory University yearly in order to staff the hospital. (mostly with residents and medical students who also paid Emory for the privilege of being trained at Grady) A couple years back, they signed a massive contract to build a massive new addition with an architecture company run by Robert Brown, who then also served as the Chairman of the board at Grady. These same corruptors were at the center of demanding yet another life line. (Grady eventually received a dubious private infusion)
Grady's problem came down to simple math. If those corrupting Grady benefitted from each and every Dollar that filtered into the Hospital, there wouldn't be any money left for other things like expenses, equipment, viability. For years, contracts had been written to benefit of those that used Grady as their own piggy bank like Emory University, Robert Brown, and the corrupt political class that surrounds Atlanta. None of those supporting the bailout of Grady had any intention of making the sort of systemic changes necessary so that any new injection wouldn't merely prop up a failing hospital but rather lead eventually to a viable hospital. By the end of the year, Grady was injected with cash. A few months later it was announced that State Senator Pam Stephenson orchestrated a scheme to simultaneously name herself both interim CEO (after orchestrating the removal of then CEO Otis Story) and Chairwoman of the board of Grady and gave herself a benefit package worth seven figures. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, the new injection of cash was going to the exact same practices that put Grady in a position to ask for the obscene sum to begin with.
....
What I have seen from those defending the automakers is mirroring from the defenders of Grady's bailout in a very troubling and startling way. Yesterday, I saw the mayor of Lansing, Michigan on Fox News pleading for a bailout of the automakers. He pointed out that the automakers had become a fabric of our society. He said that experts estimate that for every one auto job, the economic effect creates seven more. He said that the automakers had made the difficult transition when the credit crisis hit. He pleaded that the automakers were far too vital to allow to fail. He pleaded that any sort of bank ruptcy proceeding would be far too disruptive to all those that rely on the industry like his own citizens.
He dismissed all talk of restructuring as premature. He pointed out that some contracts had already been renegotiated. The whole thing was far too familiar. The corruption of the automakers by its unions and the cities and states that rely on them is certainly not intentional or as blatant as that of Grady Hospital. It is, however, no less corrosive. Those that want the autos bailed out have no intention of seeing the kind of fundamental changes in the industry necessary to have the industry survive long term. Rather, this bailout will serve their constituencies. The unions will see that their contracts and pensions are fulfilled. Mayors and governors will see that their cities and states won't lose jobs.
None of this, however, benefits the automakers. Much like Grady Hospital, the lack of viability by the automakers is simply a matter of numbers. Because contracts and pensions are so rich, they make operating costs so large that domestic automakers can't compete with their foreign counterparts which have no unions. Because taxes are so high, the automakers can't compete on talent with their foreign counterparts which generally locate in less tax pernicious areas. The unions aren't about to sit down and renegotiate contracts and pensions so that the new deals can create costs that make the big three competitive. The cities with Michigan and the state itself aren't about to talk about lowering taxes so that the big three can locate themselves in business friendly areas. They simply want the big three to continue in the same way that got them to this point.
None of the folks that support the bailout want to change any of these fundamental problems though. They want business to continue as usual at the automakers even though this has no chance of any long term success. Much like those that supported the Grady bailout though, these folks don't have the long term viability of these companies in mind when they demand the bailout. These folks represent interests that benefit from having the autos stay in business, no matter how unprofitable that is (much again like the situation at Grady Hospital), and their only agenda is making sure their constituencies are taken care of. If federal tax payers are ripped off in the process, so be it, and this is also much the same as the agenda of those that demanded a Grady bailout. Much like with Grady Hospital, a bailout, without fundamental changes, will only mean that some point soon we will be in this position again.
Although the hospital is unique in many ways, the code red at Grady is emblematic of the crippling effect America’s health care crisis has had on public hospitals around the nation. Though Grady is among the most distressed of the country’s 1,300 public hospitals, others have faced similar challenges in recent years, including those in Miami, Memphis and Chicago, said Larry S. Gage, president of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems. There are 300 fewer public hospitals today than 15 years ago, with hospitals having closed in Los Angeles, Washington, St. Louis and Milwaukee, Mr. Gage said
....
Like other public hospitals, Grady is operating on a business model that is no longer sustainable. A third of the hospital’s patients, including those treated as outpatients, are uninsured, among them a rapidly growing group of immigrants
...
Like tens of thousands of Atlantans over the last 115 years — like Gladys Knight, the soul singer, and Vernon Jordan Jr., the presidential confidante; like more than one in three babies born here in the last decade — Ms. Vaughn entered the world at Grady Memorial Hospital, one of the nation’s largest safety-net hospitals.
...
The hospital, sandwiched between downtown and the neighborhood where MartinLuther King Jr. was born, was the place where victims of the 1996 Olympics bombings and countless other disasters have been treated. It is so intrinsic to the city’s identity that Maynard H. Jackson Jr., the first black mayor, liked to say that Grady babies should be allowed to vote twice.The bearded, middle-aged man was bleeding from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the left side of his chest. “Don’t let me go out in pain,” he moaned in a drawl to the doctors and nurses treating his injury. “I was born at this hospital.”The patient in Trauma 3 was a Grady baby, though no one could have guessed it when the ambulance pulled in at 1 a.m. that Saturday.
The defense for bailing out Grady Hospital was that it did good work, it was vital to the neighborhood, and the health care crisis its closing would unleash is intolerable. Every argument defenders of bailing out Grady made were technically accurate. Grady Hospital did do a lot of good work in the community, what hospital doesn't. It is vital to the Atlanta area community. Of course it is. It's one of the three largest hospitals in the country. That is the nature of the beast with a hospital that size. It would unleash a health care crisis if it were closed, and I said as much. Grady Hospital is a roughly one thousand bed hospital that serves almost exclusively the indigent, the poor. Without it, the poor would be unleashed on a health care system that has no desire to treat them.
All of these points were also, frankly, beside the point. By the time this crisis had exploded so that Grady was on the brink of running out of money, I had developed contacts with whistle blowers and activists and so I had a unique perch in understanding why Grady Hospital was in a position to need so much cash. Grady was being run for the benefit of those running it at the expense of its own viability. Grady had for years been corrupted so that it became a nearly endless money pit for the corruptors. Grady was hemorrhaging cash because it was being weighed down by a series of contracts and obligations that benefitted the other side far more than it benefitted Grady. Grady paid $50 million to Emory University yearly in order to staff the hospital. (mostly with residents and medical students who also paid Emory for the privilege of being trained at Grady) A couple years back, they signed a massive contract to build a massive new addition with an architecture company run by Robert Brown, who then also served as the Chairman of the board at Grady. These same corruptors were at the center of demanding yet another life line. (Grady eventually received a dubious private infusion)
Grady's problem came down to simple math. If those corrupting Grady benefitted from each and every Dollar that filtered into the Hospital, there wouldn't be any money left for other things like expenses, equipment, viability. For years, contracts had been written to benefit of those that used Grady as their own piggy bank like Emory University, Robert Brown, and the corrupt political class that surrounds Atlanta. None of those supporting the bailout of Grady had any intention of making the sort of systemic changes necessary so that any new injection wouldn't merely prop up a failing hospital but rather lead eventually to a viable hospital. By the end of the year, Grady was injected with cash. A few months later it was announced that State Senator Pam Stephenson orchestrated a scheme to simultaneously name herself both interim CEO (after orchestrating the removal of then CEO Otis Story) and Chairwoman of the board of Grady and gave herself a benefit package worth seven figures. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, the new injection of cash was going to the exact same practices that put Grady in a position to ask for the obscene sum to begin with.
....
What I have seen from those defending the automakers is mirroring from the defenders of Grady's bailout in a very troubling and startling way. Yesterday, I saw the mayor of Lansing, Michigan on Fox News pleading for a bailout of the automakers. He pointed out that the automakers had become a fabric of our society. He said that experts estimate that for every one auto job, the economic effect creates seven more. He said that the automakers had made the difficult transition when the credit crisis hit. He pleaded that the automakers were far too vital to allow to fail. He pleaded that any sort of bank ruptcy proceeding would be far too disruptive to all those that rely on the industry like his own citizens.
He dismissed all talk of restructuring as premature. He pointed out that some contracts had already been renegotiated. The whole thing was far too familiar. The corruption of the automakers by its unions and the cities and states that rely on them is certainly not intentional or as blatant as that of Grady Hospital. It is, however, no less corrosive. Those that want the autos bailed out have no intention of seeing the kind of fundamental changes in the industry necessary to have the industry survive long term. Rather, this bailout will serve their constituencies. The unions will see that their contracts and pensions are fulfilled. Mayors and governors will see that their cities and states won't lose jobs.
None of this, however, benefits the automakers. Much like Grady Hospital, the lack of viability by the automakers is simply a matter of numbers. Because contracts and pensions are so rich, they make operating costs so large that domestic automakers can't compete with their foreign counterparts which have no unions. Because taxes are so high, the automakers can't compete on talent with their foreign counterparts which generally locate in less tax pernicious areas. The unions aren't about to sit down and renegotiate contracts and pensions so that the new deals can create costs that make the big three competitive. The cities with Michigan and the state itself aren't about to talk about lowering taxes so that the big three can locate themselves in business friendly areas. They simply want the big three to continue in the same way that got them to this point.
None of the folks that support the bailout want to change any of these fundamental problems though. They want business to continue as usual at the automakers even though this has no chance of any long term success. Much like those that supported the Grady bailout though, these folks don't have the long term viability of these companies in mind when they demand the bailout. These folks represent interests that benefit from having the autos stay in business, no matter how unprofitable that is (much again like the situation at Grady Hospital), and their only agenda is making sure their constituencies are taken care of. If federal tax payers are ripped off in the process, so be it, and this is also much the same as the agenda of those that demanded a Grady bailout. Much like with Grady Hospital, a bailout, without fundamental changes, will only mean that some point soon we will be in this position again.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
My Email to Burrell Ellis
Introduction: It's likely that because I have written a lot about issues surrounding Grady Hospital in Atlanta, Ga. that I wound up on the email list of Burrell Ellis, who recently was voted the next CEO of Dekalb County. Dekalb. Dekalb County is right next door to Fulton County where Atlanta is located. Grady Hospital services both Fulton and Dekalb County. Ellis' predecessor, Vernon Jones, has been, in my opinion, in the middle of much of the corruption that surrounds Grady Hospital. In any case, I recently received this email that I felt obliged to respond to.
That said, if you are serious about your commitment to work for your constituents, there are several things that you can do right away. First, the Dekalb County Police Department is the center of systemic corruption and has been for decades. This corruption climaxed with the death of Derwin Brown, the incoming sheriff, in 2001. Brown was killed by the then outgoing sheriff Syd Dorsey. Following the tragic death Derwin Brown, nothing more than cosmetic changes were done to the police department. As such, the same vicious corruption that exists that lead to the tragic death of Derwin Brown continues to be part of this department today. Cleaning up that corruption should be your first priority if you are serious about your commitment to your constituents.
Second, Grady Hospital, which serves the poor in your county and Fulton County, continues to be the center of obscene amounts of corruption. As Dekalb County CEO, you are responsible for selecting the members of the board of Grady Hospital. It is my opinion that your predecessor elected members to the board that contributed to the corruption. This corruption was epitomized by the selection of Robert Brown to head the board for several years. Among many dubious moves by Brown was awarding his own architecture firm a multi million dollar project in 2002 while Grady was in the middle of financial upheavel. If you are serious about your commitment to your constituents, you will make sure all future members of the board do not hav the sort of conflict of interest that Brown and others have.
Furthermore, you will demand an immediate investigation into the manner in which former Grady Hospital CEO, Otis Story Jr., was fired. Furthermore, you will demand that an investigation begin into the manner in which Pam Stephenson orchestrated a golden parachute for herself while she was concurrently CEO, head of the board, and a State Senator. As you may know, Grady recently received a golden parachute of its own from the Woodruff Foundation. That means the hospital will be able to function without public funds, FOR NOW. Of course, if they continue in the same corrupt way they have for decades, that money will run out quickly. Then, the hospital will look for another hand out and among the hands will be your county.
Finally, I am of the opinion that a serious investigation needs to be made of your predecessor. Time and again, Vernon Jones used the office as his own personal piggy bank and the systemic corruption he created as a result will continue unless it is investigated. Furthermore, by investigating your predecessor, you will show the voters you aren't merely his lackey. You will show everyone that the political machine that has created the systemic corruption he was an integral part of is one you are NOT.
Mr. Ellis I wish you luck in your new role, and I hope that your actions will match your hopeful rhetoric.
Thank you and thanks to all our neighbors for the vote of confidence you me at the polls to serve you as your next DeKalb County CEO. I am humbled by and grateful for the mandate you have bestowed. I will wake up every day and ask, "How can I work for our constituents today?"Dear Mr. Ellis, I want to congratulate you on your victory. Furthermore, I hope you understand that your predecessor, Vernon Jones, has left you with plenty of work to do. I have spoken with many people in the know and they tell me that you aren't merely his stooge or lackey and that you may in fact work hard to try and bring the sort of change that the County you are now in charge of desperately needs. I am not nearly as confident as those I have spoken with. Furthermore, even if initially your intentions are good, Dekalb County has a way of corrupting even those with initial good intentions.
I thank you for your votes. I also want to thank you for being an essential part of this campaign to build a New Consensus for a Better DeKalb. That's because so many of you, folks from every part of the county and from every walk of life, did more than vote. As part of the New Politics we see emerging across this country, you, voters who care about your neighborhoods and your kids' schools and the quality of life we all share, have been an active participant in this project. The New Consensus for a Better DeKalb is your work. Here's why I say that.
I am a candidate of the New Politics, and that means that the way I ask for your vote is in fact the way I will work for you in office. And so almost two years ago we began a dialogue. I asked you, by mail, over the internet, and in your neighbors' homes, what are your priorities? I said I needed to hear from you about your priorities so that TOGETHER we can make your priorities DeKalb County's priority.
That said, if you are serious about your commitment to work for your constituents, there are several things that you can do right away. First, the Dekalb County Police Department is the center of systemic corruption and has been for decades. This corruption climaxed with the death of Derwin Brown, the incoming sheriff, in 2001. Brown was killed by the then outgoing sheriff Syd Dorsey. Following the tragic death Derwin Brown, nothing more than cosmetic changes were done to the police department. As such, the same vicious corruption that exists that lead to the tragic death of Derwin Brown continues to be part of this department today. Cleaning up that corruption should be your first priority if you are serious about your commitment to your constituents.
Second, Grady Hospital, which serves the poor in your county and Fulton County, continues to be the center of obscene amounts of corruption. As Dekalb County CEO, you are responsible for selecting the members of the board of Grady Hospital. It is my opinion that your predecessor elected members to the board that contributed to the corruption. This corruption was epitomized by the selection of Robert Brown to head the board for several years. Among many dubious moves by Brown was awarding his own architecture firm a multi million dollar project in 2002 while Grady was in the middle of financial upheavel. If you are serious about your commitment to your constituents, you will make sure all future members of the board do not hav the sort of conflict of interest that Brown and others have.
Furthermore, you will demand an immediate investigation into the manner in which former Grady Hospital CEO, Otis Story Jr., was fired. Furthermore, you will demand that an investigation begin into the manner in which Pam Stephenson orchestrated a golden parachute for herself while she was concurrently CEO, head of the board, and a State Senator. As you may know, Grady recently received a golden parachute of its own from the Woodruff Foundation. That means the hospital will be able to function without public funds, FOR NOW. Of course, if they continue in the same corrupt way they have for decades, that money will run out quickly. Then, the hospital will look for another hand out and among the hands will be your county.
Finally, I am of the opinion that a serious investigation needs to be made of your predecessor. Time and again, Vernon Jones used the office as his own personal piggy bank and the systemic corruption he created as a result will continue unless it is investigated. Furthermore, by investigating your predecessor, you will show the voters you aren't merely his lackey. You will show everyone that the political machine that has created the systemic corruption he was an integral part of is one you are NOT.
Mr. Ellis I wish you luck in your new role, and I hope that your actions will match your hopeful rhetoric.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Pam Stephenson"s Grady Boondoggle
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has the latest on this developing scandal.
In February, I pointed out that Stephenson was accumulating far too much power into her own single hands.. At the time, the board of Grady Hospital had just fired Otis Story Jr. This firing was orchestrated by the board at Grady Hospital headed up by none other than Pam Stephenson. Sources have told me that the reason for Story's firing was because he wouldn't go along with the corruption at Grady Hospital. As head of the board at the time of his firing, Stephenson would have been a main point person in deciding on his firing. By then installing herself as the new interim CEO, it ought to have raised serious questions about how kosher the whole thing was. .
Besides simultaneously being the CEO of Grady and head of the board, Stephenson is also a State Senator. There appears to be all sorts of frothing at the mouths of her State Senator colleagues about the lucrative deal she landed for herself. Of course, no one seemed to mind when she manipulated herself into a postion of near absolute power so that such a deal would be possible. It seems the State's pol's wait only until corruption has occurred until being indignant. It appears the State Senate apparatus gets all worked up when corruption is actually committed, but says nothing when the roots of that corruption are set in place.
So, State Senators are calling for an investigation, however their righteous indignation is rather half hearted in my opinion. Grady has been corrupted for decades. The whole thing has gone under the nose of the state legislature. The biggest corruption committed at the hospital was committed by Charles Walker, then himself a State Senator. All of them have known for months that their State Senate colleague was simultaneously running the board and CEO of the hospital and no one said anything until this clearly corrupt confluence of power was actually used to corrupt.
Keep in mind that Stephenson has absolutely zero healthcare experience and little executive experience. Thus, she got her Grady power through connections not qualifications.
So how did she use all that power? According to this article, she used to give herself an annual salary of $600,000 per yeara and a golden parachute to the tune of $750,000. Keep in mind that Grady Hospital was in such dire financial straits that it needed to be bailed out with a private donation of roughly $200 million from the Woodruff Foundation. The Woodruff Foundation is of course closely tied to Emory University, the single biggest employer at Grady Hospital. So closely tied is Woodruff that the medical school at Emory University is named the Woodruff Health Sciences Center.
Now, given that Grady was in such dire financial straits that it needed a nine digit bailout, is it really financially wise to give such a massive contract to someone that orchestrated her position? Well, of course, financial frugality has never been the order of the day at Grady Hospital. Back in 2002, when Grady was also facing a financial crisis, they began building a multi million dollar addition. The recipient of that contract was RL Brown and Associates. RL Brown and Associates was owned by Robert Brown, then head of the board at Grady.
In other words, what is going on now is the same corruption that put Grady into a position of being in need of receiving the massive bailout they received. The backstory on the bailout likely also has a nefarious undercurrent. Why is a group so tied to Emory University (which provides more than 90% of the staff at Grady Hospital) giving so much money to the hospital that employs it? Of course, the new private board, a creation of the Grady Task Force, was supposed to be able prevent this sort of corruption. Of course, a close examination of the make up of the new private board finds several with ties to Woodruff like Steve Correl.
In other words, the corruption continues in full at Grady Hospital and no one seems to be doing much about it. Here is an updated summary of the entire scandal. Here are my recommendations for fixing Grady Hospital.
Several Georgia lawmakers and Grady hospital officials expressed outrage Wednesday over a two-year, $1.2 million contract awarded interim hospital CEO Pam Stephenson, with some calling for a state investigation and her resignation from hospital leadership posts.
Stephenson's contract was sealed shortly before the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority was to hand over control of the hospital to a new nonprofit corporation. On Monday, the corporation announced four finalists for the CEO position, and Stephenson was not among them.
Officials blasted the contract, characterizing it as a deal deliberately crafted away from public scrutiny. Some attacked what they termed the contract's lucrative offerings, including a $600,000 annual base salary and a golden parachute that could earn Stephenson a separate check for $750,000 when she is replaced.
In February, I pointed out that Stephenson was accumulating far too much power into her own single hands.. At the time, the board of Grady Hospital had just fired Otis Story Jr. This firing was orchestrated by the board at Grady Hospital headed up by none other than Pam Stephenson. Sources have told me that the reason for Story's firing was because he wouldn't go along with the corruption at Grady Hospital. As head of the board at the time of his firing, Stephenson would have been a main point person in deciding on his firing. By then installing herself as the new interim CEO, it ought to have raised serious questions about how kosher the whole thing was. .
Besides simultaneously being the CEO of Grady and head of the board, Stephenson is also a State Senator. There appears to be all sorts of frothing at the mouths of her State Senator colleagues about the lucrative deal she landed for herself. Of course, no one seemed to mind when she manipulated herself into a postion of near absolute power so that such a deal would be possible. It seems the State's pol's wait only until corruption has occurred until being indignant. It appears the State Senate apparatus gets all worked up when corruption is actually committed, but says nothing when the roots of that corruption are set in place.
So, State Senators are calling for an investigation, however their righteous indignation is rather half hearted in my opinion. Grady has been corrupted for decades. The whole thing has gone under the nose of the state legislature. The biggest corruption committed at the hospital was committed by Charles Walker, then himself a State Senator. All of them have known for months that their State Senate colleague was simultaneously running the board and CEO of the hospital and no one said anything until this clearly corrupt confluence of power was actually used to corrupt.
Keep in mind that Stephenson has absolutely zero healthcare experience and little executive experience. Thus, she got her Grady power through connections not qualifications.
So how did she use all that power? According to this article, she used to give herself an annual salary of $600,000 per yeara and a golden parachute to the tune of $750,000. Keep in mind that Grady Hospital was in such dire financial straits that it needed to be bailed out with a private donation of roughly $200 million from the Woodruff Foundation. The Woodruff Foundation is of course closely tied to Emory University, the single biggest employer at Grady Hospital. So closely tied is Woodruff that the medical school at Emory University is named the Woodruff Health Sciences Center.
Now, given that Grady was in such dire financial straits that it needed a nine digit bailout, is it really financially wise to give such a massive contract to someone that orchestrated her position? Well, of course, financial frugality has never been the order of the day at Grady Hospital. Back in 2002, when Grady was also facing a financial crisis, they began building a multi million dollar addition. The recipient of that contract was RL Brown and Associates. RL Brown and Associates was owned by Robert Brown, then head of the board at Grady.
In other words, what is going on now is the same corruption that put Grady into a position of being in need of receiving the massive bailout they received. The backstory on the bailout likely also has a nefarious undercurrent. Why is a group so tied to Emory University (which provides more than 90% of the staff at Grady Hospital) giving so much money to the hospital that employs it? Of course, the new private board, a creation of the Grady Task Force, was supposed to be able prevent this sort of corruption. Of course, a close examination of the make up of the new private board finds several with ties to Woodruff like Steve Correl.
In other words, the corruption continues in full at Grady Hospital and no one seems to be doing much about it. Here is an updated summary of the entire scandal. Here are my recommendations for fixing Grady Hospital.
Friday, April 4, 2008
D.A. Paul Howard and My Favorite Latin Phrase
When I first started investigating the rampant corruption surrounding Grady Hospital, I couldn't figure out how all of this could go on and no one know it. Such rampant corruption goes on when three things happen: a political machine that controls everything, a corrupt press that looks the other way, and finally law enforcement that also looks the other way. With respect to law enforcement, I firmly believe that most of the blame lies right at the feet of Paul Howard. In fact, Paul Howard's role in the obscene corruption at Grady Hospital can be proven through the use of my favorite Latin phrase, Res Ipsa Loquitor (the facts speak for themselves)
More than one community activist, including members of the New Grady Coalition, have told me that one of the biggest problems at Grady Hospital is the execution of open records requests. As a public hospital, financed by tax dollars, any stonewalling or outright refusal of open records requests is nothing short of a brazen violation of not only the spirit of the law but the letter. In 2002, Grady Hospital went through a massive and costly addition. This was happening at yet another time that Grady was struggling financially. The whole thing looked suspicious and activists eventually unraveled the situation. The addition was built by RL Brown and Associates owned by Robert Brown (who was a member of the Grady Board at the time of the project) Of course, it took several years for the truth to come out and one of the main reasons is that Grady was non cooperative throughout the process in responding to open records requests.
The most recent example is in response to JCAHO's threat to revoke Grady's accreditation. The actual JCAHO report still hasn't been made public and that is because Grady continues to stonewall its release. Paul Howard could put an end to all of it immediately if he wanted to, however Howard has been absent in enforcing these open records requests. One activist described feeling like a ping pong ball when dealing with Howard. When they went to the D.A.'s office, they were sent to a maze of different departments until after several hours still no one had actually done anything to help them. Howard's refusal to do anything to enforce open records requests speaks for itself.
Howard's most blatant complicity in the corruption surrounding Grady Hospital involved the case of State Senator Charles Walker. Walker was convicted of 127 felonies and currently serving his time. (all of ten years for those 127 felonies and he didn't flip on anyone) None of Walker's convictions were brought by Howard's office. That's because Howard's office didn't prosecute Walker. Members of the New Grady Coalition told me that they brought Howard all of the evidence against Walker but that he refused to move forward. Of course, you need not take my word for it. Here is how former ADA in Howard's office Denise Sorino put it...
Of course, Howard's own malfeasance only begins at Grady Hospital. The most famous case involves the prosecution of football star Ray Lewis. Here is how Sorino described his handling of that case...
Howard's office was also responsible for botching up the transfer of Brian Nichols who subsequently went on a killing spree and took hostages and he botched the case of Carissa Shaw who was alleged to have murdered her four year old daughter Destiny.
Finally, Howard's complicit involvement in the Grady corruption can be surmised by what he hasn't done. To my knowledge Howard hasn't brought anyone up on charges related to corruption at Grady Hospital. Thus, either everything I have written is totally false and inaccurate or Howard refuses to enforce the laws he was elected to uphold.
More than one community activist, including members of the New Grady Coalition, have told me that one of the biggest problems at Grady Hospital is the execution of open records requests. As a public hospital, financed by tax dollars, any stonewalling or outright refusal of open records requests is nothing short of a brazen violation of not only the spirit of the law but the letter. In 2002, Grady Hospital went through a massive and costly addition. This was happening at yet another time that Grady was struggling financially. The whole thing looked suspicious and activists eventually unraveled the situation. The addition was built by RL Brown and Associates owned by Robert Brown (who was a member of the Grady Board at the time of the project) Of course, it took several years for the truth to come out and one of the main reasons is that Grady was non cooperative throughout the process in responding to open records requests.
The most recent example is in response to JCAHO's threat to revoke Grady's accreditation. The actual JCAHO report still hasn't been made public and that is because Grady continues to stonewall its release. Paul Howard could put an end to all of it immediately if he wanted to, however Howard has been absent in enforcing these open records requests. One activist described feeling like a ping pong ball when dealing with Howard. When they went to the D.A.'s office, they were sent to a maze of different departments until after several hours still no one had actually done anything to help them. Howard's refusal to do anything to enforce open records requests speaks for itself.
Howard's most blatant complicity in the corruption surrounding Grady Hospital involved the case of State Senator Charles Walker. Walker was convicted of 127 felonies and currently serving his time. (all of ten years for those 127 felonies and he didn't flip on anyone) None of Walker's convictions were brought by Howard's office. That's because Howard's office didn't prosecute Walker. Members of the New Grady Coalition told me that they brought Howard all of the evidence against Walker but that he refused to move forward. Of course, you need not take my word for it. Here is how former ADA in Howard's office Denise Sorino put it...
Howard is currently under ethics investigation for stonewalling my investigation of Georgia Senator Charles Walker, who was finally indicted by federal investigators on 142 felony counts for stealing from Georgia's poorest citizens, including at Grady hospital. Federal authorities have stated that the co-conspirators of Walker need to be looked at by Fulton. Four years ago, I personally presented Howard with two boxes of evidence regarding the Walker/Grady corruption. Howard refused to investigate, and then finally retaliated against me. The DA office now claims to have "lost" the evidence. Howard's office continues to falsely claim they have no knowledge of the Walker/Grady corruption.As I pointed out in this piece, Joyce Harris, the prosecution's star witness in the Walker case, fingered almost the entire Grady hierarchy, including Robert Brown, as being in on the corruption. She did this during her testimony, testimony that ultimately was the centerpiece of the conviction of Charles Walker. Yet, to this day, Howard's office has prosecuted exactly ZERO people for their involvement.
There is a four year paper trail showing Howard stonewalling for Charles Walker and co-conspirators.
Of course, Howard's own malfeasance only begins at Grady Hospital. The most famous case involves the prosecution of football star Ray Lewis. Here is how Sorino described his handling of that case...
I was also made aware by the lead ADA in the Ray Lewis case that there was enough evidence to convict him, but Paul Howard chose not to present this information to the jury and the public."
Howard's office was also responsible for botching up the transfer of Brian Nichols who subsequently went on a killing spree and took hostages and he botched the case of Carissa Shaw who was alleged to have murdered her four year old daughter Destiny.
Finally, Howard's complicit involvement in the Grady corruption can be surmised by what he hasn't done. To my knowledge Howard hasn't brought anyone up on charges related to corruption at Grady Hospital. Thus, either everything I have written is totally false and inaccurate or Howard refuses to enforce the laws he was elected to uphold.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Grady Hospital: The Plot Thickens
Based on what I have been able to gather from the Atlanta area media, the current narrative seems to break down very simple. Either Grady is allowed to transform its board into new board structured as a 501(3)C or Grady will have to close. This 501 (3)C structure was first recommended by the Grady Task Force. Since then, an anonymous source has stepped foward and committed 200 million dollars if the board is allowed to restructure.
It continues to be a mystery what this new board will do that will save the hospital. 501(3)C is an obscure sub universe in the tax code. It is frankly unclear what it will do that the previous board couldn't do. Its even less clear how this new structure will benefit Grady. Furthermore, the previous board won't be dissolved but rather it will cede much of its power to the new board. This will only confuse an already confused structure even more. It seems to me that the last thing a hospital with a history of corruption should be allowed to do is complicate its structure even more, but that is exactly the narrative that you are seeing in the media in the area.
Yet, the narrative seems to be that only this new board can save the hospital. Of course, this is a nonsensical and faulty view of the situation. For instance, if you look at the state of Georgia, you will see that Georgia provides significantly less funding to its safety net hospitals than most other states. If one compared the funding the state of Georgia provides to say the state of New York, they would see the state of New York does significantly more with its resources. The hospitals in that state have significantly fewer money issues. Of course, if the state were providing more money, the state might also want to scrutinize how that money is spent. That is likely something the powers that be at Grady want to avoid. In fact, I have already made it clear that I believe this new 501(3)C is nothing more than an attempt by the powers that be to create an extra layer of insulation to make Grady even more corruptable. That said, a more reasonable answer would be to demand that the state finally pony up the money it should to keep this crucial hospital open.
The best idea that I have heard is providing contracts for such unions as AFSCME and other unions that serve employees typical in a hospital. In return, the unions would use their health insurance at Grady. This plan is actually quite ingenius. That's because it solves one of the biggest structural problems at the hospital. The hospital currently has too many non paying patients. The best way to save Grady Hospital is to find a stream of paying patients that would offset the enormous number of uninsured that are treated there yearly. The unions would bring with them a plethora of patients that have good medical insurance. The unions would bend over backwards for the opportunity to unionize the staff at a hospital as big as Grady. It seems to be a win win...
So what is the problem with such a plan? I believe that a union would also bring with it the sort of scrutiny that the powers that be doesn't want at Grady. With a union protecting its workers, whistle blowers wouldn't be retaliated against. The union would be in a position to scrutinize much of the corruption that is going on there now. Since the powers that be are more interested in continuing the systemic corruption they have been committing there, they want no part of any union (in my opinion of course).
Grady Hospital has a long history of conflicts of interest turning into disaster. State Senator Charles Walker used a sophisticated web of conflicts to commit so much criminality at Grady and beyond that he wound up being convicted of 127 felonies. Robert Brown, long time prominent board member, often wound up giving lucrative contracts to his own architecture firm. (the most infamous was a multi million dollar addition in the early part of the decade) Even now, the CEO, Otis Story, resigned and was replaced with Pam Stephenson. Stephenson is now the CEO, a board member, and also a state legislator. Despite all of these past conflicts, it appears that financing will come with its own set of conflicts of interest.
The reason I am certain that this 501(3)C is nothing more than a sham is first, that it is presented as the only hope when there are clearly plenty of options. While it remains unclear what a 501(3)C is, let alone why it would help the situation at all, it continues to be billed as the savior. Furthermore, this 501(3)C plan is loaded with new conflicts of interest that are neither explained or dealt with. Since it was the brainchild of the Grady Task Force, it would be a reasonable assumption that most of the new 501(3)C board would be made of previous members of the Grady Task Force itself. If that is the case, this new board would be filled with all sorts of conflicts of interest. While the board is made up with plenty of people of high credibility, it is also made up almost exclusively with people that have an inherent conflict of interest at Grady. Almost every member of the Grady Task Force is tied to Grady financially, (Michael Russell who has had several lucrative contracts at Grady), professionally (Dr. Michael Johns head of Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center) or politically. None of these inherent conflicts is explained or dealt with by the Task Force or in any plans of the new board. (In other words if this new board is allowed to be formed it will likely be filled almost exclusively by folks that have an inherent conflict of interest with the hospital itself. Exactly the sort of situation that lead directly to prior corruption would be allowed to form again)
This brings me back to this anonymous donor. Since the donor is anonymous, the exact identity can't be made with certainty. That said, multiple sources have speculated to me that the donor is the Woodruff Foundation. While I will keep my sourcing close to the vest, figuring on Woodruff being the anonymous donor is mostly a process of elimination. There are very few folks or entities with enough capital to provide 200 million dollars. Besides the Woodruff foundation, the only other entity is Emory itself. If it is Woodruff, then this raises all sorts of other conflict of interest issues. The Woodruff foundation has all sorts of ties to Emory University. (Emory University of course provides most of the staff at Grady Hospital) There are very few people or entities with 200 million to begin with, and even fewer with enough capital to be able to part with 200 million. Those that can only two have any motivation to keep Grady open: the short list is the Woodruff foundation and Emory University itself.
The name most prominently mentioned to head up the new 501(3)C board is Pete Correl. Correl is the former CEO of Georgia Pacific. Correll is currently a board member of Emory's School of Medicine. If my information is accurate, then this new plan is nothing more than a ruse by Emory University to consolidate even more power at Grady Hospital. Emory University already enjoys the benefits of yearly lump sum payments to staff the hospital and it even has Grady pick up the tab on its malpractice insurance. (Here is the sourcing on that)
Thus, if I am right, this so called 501(3)C will mostly have the practical effect of consolidating even more power at Grady Hospital into the hands of Emory University and its friends and allies. Yet, none of the media questions the false narrative that this 501(3)C is the only way to save Grady. None of the media scrutinizes this anonymous donor to make sure this donor doesn't have any alterior motives for giving the money. None in the media raise the obvious concern that Pete Correl's appointment to the new board would have.
What I am seeing in this evolving fiasco is pretty simple. At its time of greatest need, the powers that be have devised a plan that will make Grady even less transparent, will consolidate even more power into less hands, and will create even more conflicts of interest at a hospital with a long and sordid history of disastrous conflicts of interest. The worst part is that they are doing this with a largely apathetic media, public and political class looking the other way and not questioning any of the actions one bit.
It continues to be a mystery what this new board will do that will save the hospital. 501(3)C is an obscure sub universe in the tax code. It is frankly unclear what it will do that the previous board couldn't do. Its even less clear how this new structure will benefit Grady. Furthermore, the previous board won't be dissolved but rather it will cede much of its power to the new board. This will only confuse an already confused structure even more. It seems to me that the last thing a hospital with a history of corruption should be allowed to do is complicate its structure even more, but that is exactly the narrative that you are seeing in the media in the area.
Yet, the narrative seems to be that only this new board can save the hospital. Of course, this is a nonsensical and faulty view of the situation. For instance, if you look at the state of Georgia, you will see that Georgia provides significantly less funding to its safety net hospitals than most other states. If one compared the funding the state of Georgia provides to say the state of New York, they would see the state of New York does significantly more with its resources. The hospitals in that state have significantly fewer money issues. Of course, if the state were providing more money, the state might also want to scrutinize how that money is spent. That is likely something the powers that be at Grady want to avoid. In fact, I have already made it clear that I believe this new 501(3)C is nothing more than an attempt by the powers that be to create an extra layer of insulation to make Grady even more corruptable. That said, a more reasonable answer would be to demand that the state finally pony up the money it should to keep this crucial hospital open.
The best idea that I have heard is providing contracts for such unions as AFSCME and other unions that serve employees typical in a hospital. In return, the unions would use their health insurance at Grady. This plan is actually quite ingenius. That's because it solves one of the biggest structural problems at the hospital. The hospital currently has too many non paying patients. The best way to save Grady Hospital is to find a stream of paying patients that would offset the enormous number of uninsured that are treated there yearly. The unions would bring with them a plethora of patients that have good medical insurance. The unions would bend over backwards for the opportunity to unionize the staff at a hospital as big as Grady. It seems to be a win win...
So what is the problem with such a plan? I believe that a union would also bring with it the sort of scrutiny that the powers that be doesn't want at Grady. With a union protecting its workers, whistle blowers wouldn't be retaliated against. The union would be in a position to scrutinize much of the corruption that is going on there now. Since the powers that be are more interested in continuing the systemic corruption they have been committing there, they want no part of any union (in my opinion of course).
Grady Hospital has a long history of conflicts of interest turning into disaster. State Senator Charles Walker used a sophisticated web of conflicts to commit so much criminality at Grady and beyond that he wound up being convicted of 127 felonies. Robert Brown, long time prominent board member, often wound up giving lucrative contracts to his own architecture firm. (the most infamous was a multi million dollar addition in the early part of the decade) Even now, the CEO, Otis Story, resigned and was replaced with Pam Stephenson. Stephenson is now the CEO, a board member, and also a state legislator. Despite all of these past conflicts, it appears that financing will come with its own set of conflicts of interest.
The reason I am certain that this 501(3)C is nothing more than a sham is first, that it is presented as the only hope when there are clearly plenty of options. While it remains unclear what a 501(3)C is, let alone why it would help the situation at all, it continues to be billed as the savior. Furthermore, this 501(3)C plan is loaded with new conflicts of interest that are neither explained or dealt with. Since it was the brainchild of the Grady Task Force, it would be a reasonable assumption that most of the new 501(3)C board would be made of previous members of the Grady Task Force itself. If that is the case, this new board would be filled with all sorts of conflicts of interest. While the board is made up with plenty of people of high credibility, it is also made up almost exclusively with people that have an inherent conflict of interest at Grady. Almost every member of the Grady Task Force is tied to Grady financially, (Michael Russell who has had several lucrative contracts at Grady), professionally (Dr. Michael Johns head of Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center) or politically. None of these inherent conflicts is explained or dealt with by the Task Force or in any plans of the new board. (In other words if this new board is allowed to be formed it will likely be filled almost exclusively by folks that have an inherent conflict of interest with the hospital itself. Exactly the sort of situation that lead directly to prior corruption would be allowed to form again)
This brings me back to this anonymous donor. Since the donor is anonymous, the exact identity can't be made with certainty. That said, multiple sources have speculated to me that the donor is the Woodruff Foundation. While I will keep my sourcing close to the vest, figuring on Woodruff being the anonymous donor is mostly a process of elimination. There are very few folks or entities with enough capital to provide 200 million dollars. Besides the Woodruff foundation, the only other entity is Emory itself. If it is Woodruff, then this raises all sorts of other conflict of interest issues. The Woodruff foundation has all sorts of ties to Emory University. (Emory University of course provides most of the staff at Grady Hospital) There are very few people or entities with 200 million to begin with, and even fewer with enough capital to be able to part with 200 million. Those that can only two have any motivation to keep Grady open: the short list is the Woodruff foundation and Emory University itself.
The name most prominently mentioned to head up the new 501(3)C board is Pete Correl. Correl is the former CEO of Georgia Pacific. Correll is currently a board member of Emory's School of Medicine. If my information is accurate, then this new plan is nothing more than a ruse by Emory University to consolidate even more power at Grady Hospital. Emory University already enjoys the benefits of yearly lump sum payments to staff the hospital and it even has Grady pick up the tab on its malpractice insurance. (Here is the sourcing on that)
Thus, if I am right, this so called 501(3)C will mostly have the practical effect of consolidating even more power at Grady Hospital into the hands of Emory University and its friends and allies. Yet, none of the media questions the false narrative that this 501(3)C is the only way to save Grady. None of the media scrutinizes this anonymous donor to make sure this donor doesn't have any alterior motives for giving the money. None in the media raise the obvious concern that Pete Correl's appointment to the new board would have.
What I am seeing in this evolving fiasco is pretty simple. At its time of greatest need, the powers that be have devised a plan that will make Grady even less transparent, will consolidate even more power into less hands, and will create even more conflicts of interest at a hospital with a long and sordid history of disastrous conflicts of interest. The worst part is that they are doing this with a largely apathetic media, public and political class looking the other way and not questioning any of the actions one bit.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Grady Hospital and the Definition of Insanity (Updated)
An old proverb goes like this
According to the AJC, Otis Story, who left under murky circumstances, is in the process of suing cash strapped Grady Hospital for $2 million dollars in severence.
Among the many lessons of the Walker case, is the corrossive and corrupting influence of allowing one individual to hold so many duel roles that they have a conflict of interest. Robert Brown, long time prominent board member, received a lucrative contract from cash strapped Grady Hospital in 2002 for his architecture firm, RL Brown and Associates, for a major expansion of Grady Hospital. These sorts of conflicts of interest are common at Grady Hospital. The entire Grady Task Force is filled with folks with a professional, legislative, or financial interest in Grady Hospital. The members are exclusively folks from Emory University and Morehouse College (the two schools that staff Grady), former and current board members like Robert Brown himself, and those with current or past contracts with Grady, like Michael Russell of H.J. Russell. There are no whistleblowers on the board, no community activist, there is no one on this board that doesn't themselves have a conflict of interest already. It should surprise no one then that the Grady Task Force has come up with a plan that will do nothing but make it easier to corrupt the hospital going forward.
Despite this pattern of conflict of interest leading to corruption, after Story was fired under murky circumstances, he was replaced by Pam Stephenson, who herself has all sorts of conflicts. She will now concurrently be head of the board, CEO, and a State Legislator. One could say that she has influence in every single decision at Grady Hospital, from hiring and firing, contracts, purse strings...no one will be able to sneeze there now without Stephenson knowing about it.
Apparently no one has learned any lessons from the previous cases of corruption from Walker, to Brown, to the Task Force. When I say no one, I don't mean the corruptors, the media, or any of their facilatators. I mean the folks that wind up footing the bill for all of this corruption, the folks, the tax payers themselves.
It seems pretty obvious that there is a clear pattern of behavior of the corruptors, and they aren't going to change. The media is not going to report it, and Grady will continue to be corrupted. Ultimately, it is the tax payers that will get the shaft. Yet, they sit idly by while this goes on and usually out in the open and right in front of them. The powers that be at Grady aren't going to change. The media isn't going to change. The only group that can change is the one ultimately footing the bill. Unless the folks rise up and demand more, we will continue to have the exact same pattern of behavior over and over and over again.
Epilogue: For better understanding and context, you may want to read this updated summary of the entire Grady Hospital fiasco. Also, here are the recommendations my colleagues and I have developed for fixing Grady Hospital.
Update...
It should come as no surprise that Stephenson used her confluence of power to no good. Here is the update and how she profited from her simultaneous roles.
the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
According to the AJC, Otis Story, who left under murky circumstances, is in the process of suing cash strapped Grady Hospital for $2 million dollars in severence.
A lawyer for Otis Story, who was earning $600,000 a year, said he is negotiating with Grady.The issue may focus on whether Story was fired for good reason and whether the Grady board members provided him with written notice and a chance to defend himself. His attorney said they didn't.While that is interesting, and likely has a lot more back story than the AJC is reporting, here is the most interesting part of the story. (no pun intended)
If he was fired for cause, he gets no severance, but a hearing process is required.
When Story was fired two weeks ago, after less than a year in the job, Grady board chairwoman Pam Stephenson did not cite any failure on his part. The board, she said, wanted a change in administration.
Grady board member Geoffrey Heard, however, said at the time, "The position needed strengthening."
The Grady board has replaced Story temporarily with Stephenson, its chairwoman, a move that has created controversy, since it places her as hospital CEO as well as head of the board that oversees the Grady system. Stephenson is also a state legislator.From the late nineties through much of the beginning of this decade, State Senator Charles Walker committed so much criminality at Grady Hospital and beyond that he was charged with 138 felonies, convicted of 127, and sentenced to 10 years in jail (or about three months per felony). He was able to accomplish this by using a sphere of influence that he created. For instance, as a powerful State Senator he had great influence in the purse strings to Grady Hospital. He used that influence and parlayed that into extorting Grady Hospital into hiring up to ten times as many temps from the temp agency he owned as Grady actually wanted or needed. (Many times he demanded up to fifty temps be hired per day even though Grady only wanted or needed five) He also ran a newspaper and threatened all those who didn't play ball with him with bad press in the newspaper.
Stephenson could not be reached for comment.
Among the many lessons of the Walker case, is the corrossive and corrupting influence of allowing one individual to hold so many duel roles that they have a conflict of interest. Robert Brown, long time prominent board member, received a lucrative contract from cash strapped Grady Hospital in 2002 for his architecture firm, RL Brown and Associates, for a major expansion of Grady Hospital. These sorts of conflicts of interest are common at Grady Hospital. The entire Grady Task Force is filled with folks with a professional, legislative, or financial interest in Grady Hospital. The members are exclusively folks from Emory University and Morehouse College (the two schools that staff Grady), former and current board members like Robert Brown himself, and those with current or past contracts with Grady, like Michael Russell of H.J. Russell. There are no whistleblowers on the board, no community activist, there is no one on this board that doesn't themselves have a conflict of interest already. It should surprise no one then that the Grady Task Force has come up with a plan that will do nothing but make it easier to corrupt the hospital going forward.
Despite this pattern of conflict of interest leading to corruption, after Story was fired under murky circumstances, he was replaced by Pam Stephenson, who herself has all sorts of conflicts. She will now concurrently be head of the board, CEO, and a State Legislator. One could say that she has influence in every single decision at Grady Hospital, from hiring and firing, contracts, purse strings...no one will be able to sneeze there now without Stephenson knowing about it.
Apparently no one has learned any lessons from the previous cases of corruption from Walker, to Brown, to the Task Force. When I say no one, I don't mean the corruptors, the media, or any of their facilatators. I mean the folks that wind up footing the bill for all of this corruption, the folks, the tax payers themselves.
It seems pretty obvious that there is a clear pattern of behavior of the corruptors, and they aren't going to change. The media is not going to report it, and Grady will continue to be corrupted. Ultimately, it is the tax payers that will get the shaft. Yet, they sit idly by while this goes on and usually out in the open and right in front of them. The powers that be at Grady aren't going to change. The media isn't going to change. The only group that can change is the one ultimately footing the bill. Unless the folks rise up and demand more, we will continue to have the exact same pattern of behavior over and over and over again.
Epilogue: For better understanding and context, you may want to read this updated summary of the entire Grady Hospital fiasco. Also, here are the recommendations my colleagues and I have developed for fixing Grady Hospital.
Update...
It should come as no surprise that Stephenson used her confluence of power to no good. Here is the update and how she profited from her simultaneous roles.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Re Examining the Case of State Senator Charles Walker
For more than a decade State Senator Charles Walker was among the most if not the most powerful politicians in the state of Georgia. His reign came to a humiliating end in June of 2004 when he was indicted on 142 separate counts of corruption related charges. His indictment read like an alphabet soup of terms straight out of your favorite law or cop show: wire fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion, extortion. If it was on your favorite lawyer show, he was probably charged with it. Of those 142 charges, he was convicted on 127 counts.
The scope and breadth of his crimes was staggering, shocking, and ultimately it is the back bone of the widespread corruption that is currently leading to the potential closing of Grady Hospital. Walker used a network of power and influence to either get into bed with powerful people or strong arm those that refused to play ball. For instance, Walker ran a newspaper and anyone that wouldn't play ball would be threatened with negative publicity from his newspaper. He used his ability to procure government funds as a string to get hospitals to hire temps at his temp company.
Here is where the case gets shocking. After being convicted on 127 counts he was sentenced to ten years in jail. Now, normally, when someone receives such a light sentences after being convicted of so many things, we would assume that he flipped on others. In this case, he didn't. In fact, besides Walker, his daughter, and the companies they ran, NO ONE, NO ONE, was charged or convicted of anything. Furthermore, the authorities would have us believe that the proper sentence, without ratting out anyone, for 127 separate convictions is ten years. There are people busted with drugs that are serving more time than that. It seems the corruption that Walker pulled off was nothing compared to the corruption involved in investigating and executing his case.
In fact, we don't need to speculate as to whether or not others were involved in the corruption. One only needed to be in the courtroom on the day that Joyce Harris, the chief prosecution witness, testified. According to a source that was there when she testified, she accused Walker of demanding a quid pro quo. Grady is a public hospital. Walker, who again was one of the most powerful politicians in Georgia, was able to influence just how much money they received. He demanded that the temp company he ran hire up to 50 people per day (if you read the link Grady normally hired a handful per day) in order to receive funds. Harris testified to a lot more than just Walker. She accused Grady CEO Ed Renford, and Tim Jefferson Chief Legal Counsel of Grady, of threatening her safety if she blew the whistle. She accused Robert Brown, President of the board of Trustees of Grady Hospital, of accepting kickbacks and sexual favors. She accused William Casarella, Chief Medical Officer at Grady, of looking the other way. Yet, despite these incendiary accusations and 127 separate convictions of Walker, the powers that be at Grady were never investigated.
In other words, first, the authorities would have us believe that this guy was able to pull off so much criminality that it lead to the conviction on 127 separate counts, and that he pulled all of this off on his own. Furthermore, the authorities would have us believe that a proper sentence for the conviction on 127 separate charges is ten years in prison.Furthermore, right around the time that Walker's trial was ending, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the Dept. of Health and Human Services issued a report on Grady. Here is the conclusion of the report.
The only one to lose their job as a result of the Walker scandal was Joyce Harris the one person who tried to stop the corruption. Ed Renford retired with a pension that pays him six figures per year. Tim Jefferson continues in the exact same position. William Casarella was actually promoted within Emory University. Robert Brown did eventually lose his sweetheart position but that was due to a separte scandal.
The reason this is important is because Grady is on the verge of collapse and its collapse threatens the entire medical system in Atlanta and Georgia. As a friend and Atlanta resident recently told me, the people the are the most scared are the other hospitals because Grady treats the patients no one else wants. Now, the legislature is debating whether or not to feed Grady with millions of more dollars. Make no mistake, Grady is in this mess because it is obscenely corrupt, and the exact same people that caused the corruption continue to be in power now. If they are fed more money, that is the ultimate throwing good money after bad.
If people are serious about saving Grady the first thing they need to do is clean house. You cannot save Grady if the same people that put it in this mess are in charge of getting it out. I hope the good people of Georgia will wake up to the obscene levels of corruption that have put this essential hospital on the brink of collapse and that they demand that the resolution is once and for all no longer the same old same old.
(Updated)Much of the story about Grady Hospital is so confusing that anyone that winds up in the middle is likely to be confused. I don't believe that this particular one is an example of this, however, you should also know how State Senator Charles Walker fits into the entire puzzle so to speak. Thus, I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.
Also, please follow this link so that you can hear me and a colleague discuss the Walker case along with several other matters related to Grady and Emory.
The scope and breadth of his crimes was staggering, shocking, and ultimately it is the back bone of the widespread corruption that is currently leading to the potential closing of Grady Hospital. Walker used a network of power and influence to either get into bed with powerful people or strong arm those that refused to play ball. For instance, Walker ran a newspaper and anyone that wouldn't play ball would be threatened with negative publicity from his newspaper. He used his ability to procure government funds as a string to get hospitals to hire temps at his temp company.
Here is where the case gets shocking. After being convicted on 127 counts he was sentenced to ten years in jail. Now, normally, when someone receives such a light sentences after being convicted of so many things, we would assume that he flipped on others. In this case, he didn't. In fact, besides Walker, his daughter, and the companies they ran, NO ONE, NO ONE, was charged or convicted of anything. Furthermore, the authorities would have us believe that the proper sentence, without ratting out anyone, for 127 separate convictions is ten years. There are people busted with drugs that are serving more time than that. It seems the corruption that Walker pulled off was nothing compared to the corruption involved in investigating and executing his case.
In fact, we don't need to speculate as to whether or not others were involved in the corruption. One only needed to be in the courtroom on the day that Joyce Harris, the chief prosecution witness, testified. According to a source that was there when she testified, she accused Walker of demanding a quid pro quo. Grady is a public hospital. Walker, who again was one of the most powerful politicians in Georgia, was able to influence just how much money they received. He demanded that the temp company he ran hire up to 50 people per day (if you read the link Grady normally hired a handful per day) in order to receive funds. Harris testified to a lot more than just Walker. She accused Grady CEO Ed Renford, and Tim Jefferson Chief Legal Counsel of Grady, of threatening her safety if she blew the whistle. She accused Robert Brown, President of the board of Trustees of Grady Hospital, of accepting kickbacks and sexual favors. She accused William Casarella, Chief Medical Officer at Grady, of looking the other way. Yet, despite these incendiary accusations and 127 separate convictions of Walker, the powers that be at Grady were never investigated.
In other words, first, the authorities would have us believe that this guy was able to pull off so much criminality that it lead to the conviction on 127 separate counts, and that he pulled all of this off on his own. Furthermore, the authorities would have us believe that a proper sentence for the conviction on 127 separate charges is ten years in prison.Furthermore, right around the time that Walker's trial was ending, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the Dept. of Health and Human Services issued a report on Grady. Here is the conclusion of the report.
the conditions at your hospital pose an immediate and serious threat to theYou think that is shocking. What is really shocking is what happened to all of the players that were not only involved in the corruption of Walker but the conditions that lead to the scathing conclusion of that report.
health and safety of your patients
The only one to lose their job as a result of the Walker scandal was Joyce Harris the one person who tried to stop the corruption. Ed Renford retired with a pension that pays him six figures per year. Tim Jefferson continues in the exact same position. William Casarella was actually promoted within Emory University. Robert Brown did eventually lose his sweetheart position but that was due to a separte scandal.
The reason this is important is because Grady is on the verge of collapse and its collapse threatens the entire medical system in Atlanta and Georgia. As a friend and Atlanta resident recently told me, the people the are the most scared are the other hospitals because Grady treats the patients no one else wants. Now, the legislature is debating whether or not to feed Grady with millions of more dollars. Make no mistake, Grady is in this mess because it is obscenely corrupt, and the exact same people that caused the corruption continue to be in power now. If they are fed more money, that is the ultimate throwing good money after bad.
If people are serious about saving Grady the first thing they need to do is clean house. You cannot save Grady if the same people that put it in this mess are in charge of getting it out. I hope the good people of Georgia will wake up to the obscene levels of corruption that have put this essential hospital on the brink of collapse and that they demand that the resolution is once and for all no longer the same old same old.
(Updated)Much of the story about Grady Hospital is so confusing that anyone that winds up in the middle is likely to be confused. I don't believe that this particular one is an example of this, however, you should also know how State Senator Charles Walker fits into the entire puzzle so to speak. Thus, I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.
Also, please follow this link so that you can hear me and a colleague discuss the Walker case along with several other matters related to Grady and Emory.
Monday, December 24, 2007
King Drew and Grady: Comparison and Contrast
Last week, Grady Hospital entered a dubious and notorious category when the JCAHO threatened to revoke its national accreditation. Only one time previously had the JCAHO gone to such a dramatic step: King Drew Hospital in California. The conditions at King Drew were something out of a bad nightmare.
While the case of Edith Rodriguez became the most visible and poignant, the L.A. Times did a full investigation including undercover work to expose a great deal of the atrocious patient care at King Drew. This five part series turned the problems at King Drew from abstract and vague to real and personal.
Because of the reporting of the L.A. Times, the JCAHO was left with no choice but this extreme action.While we still don't know the exact specifics that lead to the same move vis a vis Grady Hospital, you can be sure that whatever the problems are they are just as serious. (We don't know since Grady hasn't made the findings public) Unfortunately, unlike in L.A., the major media in Atlanta has been asleep at the wheel in reporting any malfeasance at Grady Hospital.
If anyone wanted to read about any specific stories that were similarly nighmarish at Grady, they only needed to read my blog.
One night that is what happened. One time he was left in charge of the entire step down unitfrom 4 PM to 2AM. The first emergency came from one patient who was recovering from lung surgery. The patient's lung collapsed and Kevin was called in to save his life. The patient was suffocating and time was of the essence. Kevin was panicked and needed to move quick. He needed to find a chest tube, but because of his own inexperience, he didn't know where they kept the chest tubes. In a rush, he did the only thing he could think of at the time. He grabbed the dirty chest tube that had already been used on the patient and injected into their lungs.
Next, Kevin was asked to read an x ray of the patient's lungs to determine if they were stable. This is again not something a medical student is supposed to do on their own and without supervision but since their was no supervision there wasn't much choice. Kevin gave it his best estimation and determined the patient was fine however as it turns out that was just a lucky guess. This patient survived but it had nothing to do with the type of care that was provided them at Grady.
I have had many apologists try and claim these stories are inaccurate...
Unfortunately for the apologists, the facts speak for themselves.(res ipsa loquitur) Grady isn't being threatened with revocation of their license because a few machines are broken, or some doctors are occasionally careless, or any other mild reason. The action by the JCAHO is extreme because what is going on at Grady is extreme. If this story is inaccurate, how does one explain what is going on at Grady. Since the JCAHO did what they did, it ultimately doesn't matter whether or not this particular story is true. I can assure you that there have been plenty of nightmarish incidents. I know this because the action of the JCAHO speaks for itself.
This particular story is not the issue. The issue is the reporting, or should I say non reporting, of the AJC and other media outlets in the area. For instance, in 2004 the Dept. of Health and Human Services finished an investigation that concluded,
King Drew and Grady are connected in other ways. Several high ranking members of King Drew found their way onto the staff of Grady Hospital. For instance, Ed Renford held a high ranking position at King Drew before becoming CEO at Grady. Leon Haley was another former high up at King Drew that wound up at Grady Hospital. He was Chief of Emergency Services. This is frankly the equivalent of hiring the former higher ups at Enron to be CEO, CFO, etc at your company. Yet, this too was not something that the AJC ever paid much attention to.
Even now, the AJC isn't doing very much with the Grady story. No one at the AJC is explaining exactly what it means that the JCAHO is threatening to revoke Grady's accreditation. The layman doesn't know the difference between the JCAHO and the NCAA. If they simply read that the JCAHO is threatening to revoke Grady's accreditation, they will have absolutely no context to the story. Unless the media explains to the readers and viewers what exactly this means they aren't going to know or care.
The biggest difference between the two cases is their respective positions within each of their health care communities. King Drew was a fairly large hospital and it catered to the indigent like Grady. The difference is that King Drew was not the only game in town so to speak when it came to serving the poor folks. Thus, closing it down disrupted the health care system in the L.A. area but not to the point that it couldn't handle it. The same is not true of Grady. Grady is massive among the five biggest hospitals in the country. It serves the overwhelming number of poor folks in Dekalb and Fulton County and frankly serves the poor in other counties as well. Closing it down will unleash these folks on the rest of the medical system in the area, and no one can predict the outcome. The consequences of closing Grady are scary and totally unpredictable. Of course, the Atlanta media has done absolutely no reporting on this part of the story.
Because the L.A. Times took its first amendment responsibility seriously the nightmarish conditions at King Drew were exposed and the hospital was dealt with. Whether through incompetence or worse, the AJC has never taken their first amendment seriously vis a vis Grady Hospital. As a result, we have come to the place we have despite repeated warnings.
EPILOGUE:
For a full summary of the entire fiasco at Grady, Emory and beyond please read this piece.
Also, please take a look at the recommendations that I, and frankly mostly my colleagues, have put together for saving Grady Hospital.
It might have gone down as the death of a "quasi-transient" woman with a history of abusing drugs. That's how the May 9 death of Edith Isabel Rodriguez was initially reported to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
But five weeks later, her demise has become a cause celebre, a symbol of bureaucratic indifference. It is fraught with significance not just for one struggling inner-city hospital but for political and health leaders in the Los Angeles area and perhaps beyond. The county Sheriff's Department, health officials and the Board of Supervisors all are feverishly trying to determine who was to blame and how to prevent a recurrence.
Despite a long history of problems at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, two things set the Rodriguez case apart: the existence of a security videotape showing the woman writhing for 45 minutes on the floor of the emergency room lobby and the public release this week of two 911 calls in which witnesses unsuccessfully pleaded with sheriff's dispatchers for help.
While the case of Edith Rodriguez became the most visible and poignant, the L.A. Times did a full investigation including undercover work to expose a great deal of the atrocious patient care at King Drew. This five part series turned the problems at King Drew from abstract and vague to real and personal.
The investigation reveals that King/Drew is much more dangerous than the public has been told.Among the findings:
• Errors and neglect by King/Drew's staff have repeatedly injured or killed patients over more than a decade, a pattern that remains largely unscrutinized and unchecked. Some lapses were never reported to authorities — or even to the victims or their families. And some people learned of the severity of the failings only by suing or, in several instances, from Times reporters who sought them out to learn about their care.
• Although King/Drew opened in 1972 with the promise that it would be "the very best hospital in America," it is now, by various measures, one of the very worst. It pays out more per patient for medical malpractice than any of the state's 17 other public hospitals or the six University of California medical centers.
• Entire departments are riddled with incompetence, internal strife and, in some cases, criminality. Employees have pilfered and sometimes sold the hospital's drugs; chronic absenteeism is rampant; assaults between hospital workers are not uncommon. Despite King/Drew's repeated promises to regulators, the problems have gone unfixed for years.
• The hospital's failings do not stem from a lack of money, as its supporters long have contended. King/Drew spends more per patient than any of the three other general hospitals run by Los Angeles County. Millions of dollars go to unusual workers' compensation claims and abnormally high salaries for ranking doctors.
• The hospital's governing body, the county Board of Supervisors, has been told repeatedly — often in writing — of needless deaths and injuries at King/Drew. Recently the supervisors have made some aggressive moves aimed at fixing the hospital. But for years, the board shied away from decisive action in the face of community anger and accusations of racism.
Because of the reporting of the L.A. Times, the JCAHO was left with no choice but this extreme action.While we still don't know the exact specifics that lead to the same move vis a vis Grady Hospital, you can be sure that whatever the problems are they are just as serious. (We don't know since Grady hasn't made the findings public) Unfortunately, unlike in L.A., the major media in Atlanta has been asleep at the wheel in reporting any malfeasance at Grady Hospital.
If anyone wanted to read about any specific stories that were similarly nighmarish at Grady, they only needed to read my blog.
One night that is what happened. One time he was left in charge of the entire step down unitfrom 4 PM to 2AM. The first emergency came from one patient who was recovering from lung surgery. The patient's lung collapsed and Kevin was called in to save his life. The patient was suffocating and time was of the essence. Kevin was panicked and needed to move quick. He needed to find a chest tube, but because of his own inexperience, he didn't know where they kept the chest tubes. In a rush, he did the only thing he could think of at the time. He grabbed the dirty chest tube that had already been used on the patient and injected into their lungs.
Next, Kevin was asked to read an x ray of the patient's lungs to determine if they were stable. This is again not something a medical student is supposed to do on their own and without supervision but since their was no supervision there wasn't much choice. Kevin gave it his best estimation and determined the patient was fine however as it turns out that was just a lucky guess. This patient survived but it had nothing to do with the type of care that was provided them at Grady.
I have had many apologists try and claim these stories are inaccurate...
Ok, this story is ridiculous. I graduated from Emory medical school in 2007, and no scenario such as the one Kevin described ever happened to anyone I know. We were never left alone in charge of entire floors; that is completely preposterous. And even if I had been, I would have known enough even as a third-year med student to ASK SOMEBODY WHERE THE CHEST TUBES ARE rather than abandon sterile technique and try to insert a dirty one. My guess is that they dismissed him for some real grievance, and he is claiming to be a whistleblower to cover himself.
Unfortunately for the apologists, the facts speak for themselves.(res ipsa loquitur) Grady isn't being threatened with revocation of their license because a few machines are broken, or some doctors are occasionally careless, or any other mild reason. The action by the JCAHO is extreme because what is going on at Grady is extreme. If this story is inaccurate, how does one explain what is going on at Grady. Since the JCAHO did what they did, it ultimately doesn't matter whether or not this particular story is true. I can assure you that there have been plenty of nightmarish incidents. I know this because the action of the JCAHO speaks for itself.
This particular story is not the issue. The issue is the reporting, or should I say non reporting, of the AJC and other media outlets in the area. For instance, in 2004 the Dept. of Health and Human Services finished an investigation that concluded,
the conditions at Grady Hospital provide a serious and immediate threat to the health and safety of the patientsThis report received little if any attention from the AJC when it came out even though its very conclusions indicated that the conditions at Grady were just as dangerous as those discovered by the L.A. Times at King Drew. Had the AJC made an issue out of that particular report, it is possible that many of the problems that are currently facing Grady could have been resolved then. Instead, they treated this damning report as nothing more than a by line. No one ever fully investigated. The report damned four departments specifically: oncology, cardiology, General Surgery, and obgyn. I know this because I got a copy of the report. Only the powers that be at the AJC know why they never got a copy of it.
King Drew and Grady are connected in other ways. Several high ranking members of King Drew found their way onto the staff of Grady Hospital. For instance, Ed Renford held a high ranking position at King Drew before becoming CEO at Grady. Leon Haley was another former high up at King Drew that wound up at Grady Hospital. He was Chief of Emergency Services. This is frankly the equivalent of hiring the former higher ups at Enron to be CEO, CFO, etc at your company. Yet, this too was not something that the AJC ever paid much attention to.
Even now, the AJC isn't doing very much with the Grady story. No one at the AJC is explaining exactly what it means that the JCAHO is threatening to revoke Grady's accreditation. The layman doesn't know the difference between the JCAHO and the NCAA. If they simply read that the JCAHO is threatening to revoke Grady's accreditation, they will have absolutely no context to the story. Unless the media explains to the readers and viewers what exactly this means they aren't going to know or care.
The biggest difference between the two cases is their respective positions within each of their health care communities. King Drew was a fairly large hospital and it catered to the indigent like Grady. The difference is that King Drew was not the only game in town so to speak when it came to serving the poor folks. Thus, closing it down disrupted the health care system in the L.A. area but not to the point that it couldn't handle it. The same is not true of Grady. Grady is massive among the five biggest hospitals in the country. It serves the overwhelming number of poor folks in Dekalb and Fulton County and frankly serves the poor in other counties as well. Closing it down will unleash these folks on the rest of the medical system in the area, and no one can predict the outcome. The consequences of closing Grady are scary and totally unpredictable. Of course, the Atlanta media has done absolutely no reporting on this part of the story.
Because the L.A. Times took its first amendment responsibility seriously the nightmarish conditions at King Drew were exposed and the hospital was dealt with. Whether through incompetence or worse, the AJC has never taken their first amendment seriously vis a vis Grady Hospital. As a result, we have come to the place we have despite repeated warnings.
EPILOGUE:
For a full summary of the entire fiasco at Grady, Emory and beyond please read this piece.
Also, please take a look at the recommendations that I, and frankly mostly my colleagues, have put together for saving Grady Hospital.
The Changing Political Dynamic Surrounding Grady Hospital
From a purely political junkie level the current dynamics surrounding Grady Hospital are absolutely fascinating. Here is a quick run down. Late last month, the board at Grady Hospital approved a plan to go quasi private and asked, or demanded depending on your perspective, for roughly half a billion dollars in order to stay solvent. Then, not two weeks later, the JCAHO threatened to cut off Grady's national accreditation. Now, let's take each one at a time and then look at them together.
I believe the board is playing a huge political game of chicken with the Georgia legislature. I believe this plan does NOT have the best interest of the hospital in mind whatsoever. While that is certainly important, it is unfortunately a side issue in this political battle. As a friend of mine once put it
I have fallen in love with the Latin phrase, Res Ipsa Loquitur. (The facts speak for themselves) Given Grady's long and sordid history with corruption and mismanagement, the fact that most of the power structure in Georgia never tried to really stop it tells me that most people don't much care as long as some other entity was taking care of those that no one else wanted to take care of, THE POOR. I believe the powers that be are counting on the exact same dynamic now. I believe the only thing most of the power players in Georgia want to avoid is for the poor folks to be dropped on the rest of the health care system. As long as they are Grady's problem, in my opinion, most everyone else turns a blind eye.
Thus, we have this game of chicken. The legislature doesn't want to hand Grady Hospital anymore money. They must know that the systemic problems currently going on at Grady aren't going to be solved with this plan, however without an infusion of cash, Grady shuts down. The powers that be at Grady are counting on the legislature blinking first. The legislature meets again in January so, for now, that part of the story is on hold.Enter the JCAHO. Just last week they publicly threatened to revoke the accreditation of Grady Hospital. To put this move in perspective only one hospital, King Hospital in California, has ever actually lost their accreditation. Many of allies on this story have extolled this move as pivotal. I am a lot more skeptical. There must have been the same kind of excitement when State Senator Charles Walker was convicted of 127 felonies at Grady and beyond. Yet, he, along with his daughter and the companies they ran, were the only ones that were convicted, and of course he got the absurd sentence of ten years. In 2004, the department of Health and Human Services conducted an investigation that concluded this...
In each of these stories, the truth is quite complicated and it was never fully explained to the citizens of Georgia. For instance, in the case of the HHS report, the report itself was damning, however how many people know the specifics of the report? Four departments were singled out: oncology, cardiology, General Surgery, and obgyn, in the report. Each of these departments had heads. None of these people lost their jobs because the specifics of the report weren't ever reported properly in the media. Furthermore, the heads of these departments had one boss, the Chief Medical Officer. His name is William Casarella and he has since been promoted within Emory University. This also happened because the media didn't properly report the specifics of the case. All people knew, if anything, about the investigation was the conclusion. While that was damning enough blame was impossible for a layman to determine without understanding the specifics as I now explain them.
In the case of Medicare fraud in the late 1990's, three departments were also identified: cardiology, obgyn, and oncology. Again, these departments have heads and a Chief Medical Officer above them. All of them including the CMO should have been and would have been fired if the media had properly exposed that case. As you can see the same departments are now coming up in multiple reports. No one outside the Grady structure knows this because the media, either through incompetence or worse, doesn't report the specifics of each case.There is one other case that the media did an atrocious job of reporting. That is the case of Dr. Sam Newcom. He was for about a year, the head of Oncology at Grady Hospital and Emory University Professor. He tried to speak out about the corruption and poor patient care at Grady Hospital and he was fired and ultimately paid off and silenced, but before that he wrote an article entitled Fighting Class Cleansing at Grady Memorial Hospital. You won't find this article in any mainstream Atlanta publication. As head of Oncology, you would be right in concluding that much of his indictment centered on his own department. In other words, oncology is the subject of a great deal of indictment from people of varying motivations and knowledge.
Nothing much has happened to clean up the oncology department and that is because the media has been asleep in reporting the specifics of what is going on at Grady.Then, there is Emory University. When the heat gets hot on Grady, Emory does a great job of distancing itself. In fact, they are doing their own disappearing act now. The truth is that they are for all intents and purposes one and the same. Each of these departments indicted by several different groups was run and almost fully staffed by staff at Emory University. The Chief Medical Officer, Dr. William Casarella, during much of this malfeasance has since been promoted within Emory. In other words, when there is sytemic problems at Grady Hospital, the blame must be laid at Emory University since it is staffed overwhelmingly by Emory professors and students. When Dr. Newcom indicted oncology, he was indicting his own colleagues since oncology is overwhelmingly staffed, like most of Grady Hospital, by Emory University personnel.
Now, what about the JCAHO findings? We know they are threatening to cut off accreditation however why? That, we don't know because for reasons unknown (I plan on calling the JCAHO on Monday for further explanation) the specifics of the findings aren't known. We can assume that multiple specific departments are the cause of it. It might be oncology, General Surgery, obgyn, cardiology, etc. The heads of any of the departments involved must be removed. If your department contributed to an investigation that ultimately lead to the accreditation of your hospital being threatened, THAT IS GROUNDS FOR REMOVAL, in my opinion at least. The current chief medical officer, Curtis Lewis, must be removed. If you are overseeing a hospital and the hospital is threatened with the removal of its accreditation, THAT IS GROUNDS FOR REMOVAL. The Current CEO of Grady Hospital is Otis Story, Sr. He must be removed for the same reasons. In fact, the entire board ought to be removed, however the board is overseen by Vernon Jones, and anyone that knows anything about Jones knows not to expect that to happen. Of course, how many Georgia folks know the real story behind Vernon Jones? That would require the media in Georgia to actually competently report the whole truth.
This whole case proves why the first amendment, the free press, is first not second or tenth. I hope everyone sees what happens when the media itself cedes its own freedoms and doesn't bother to report the whole truth. In order for this cycle to stop, the whole truth of the JCAHO findings must be reported by the media in Georgia. The media must keep the pressure on until all parties are held responsible. That is what has to happen.
Here is what will probably happen. There will be no more then a few more articles in the AJC about this report. Anymore reporting will be on the eventual deal made between Grady and the JCAHO, a deal that will no doubt be made in some back room. The major media in Georgia will NOT reveal the specific departments responsible for this latest investigation. They won't name names and they won't demand for heads to roll. Finally, they won't call Emory out when they distance themselves. Emory University will throw its significant weight around the Georgia Legislature and no one will report it. Grady will be given a golden parachute and none of the obvious systemic problems I have pointed out will ever be reported on or addressed. I hope I am wrong and I will be watching.
For more information on this case, please read this article. Also, please read the recommendations that my colleagues have come up with and compare them to the current plan.
I believe the board is playing a huge political game of chicken with the Georgia legislature. I believe this plan does NOT have the best interest of the hospital in mind whatsoever. While that is certainly important, it is unfortunately a side issue in this political battle. As a friend of mine once put it
Grady can't shut down because who would take care of all the poor folks thenWithout the money called for in this plan, Grady WILL shut down. The powers that be know this, and I have said as much. While Grady Hospital has had a long history of corruption and mismanagement, much of the power structure has continued to boldly and brazenly manage it in much the same way that has landed it in its current state. The reason for this is of course quite complicated, however it is due in no small part to Grady's vital role in Georgia health care system and society at large. Remember, Grady Hospital is among the largest in the world and is overwhelmingly responsible for taking care of most Georgia's poor folks. Without it all of the many "nice" hospitals in the area would have to take care of those folks.
I have fallen in love with the Latin phrase, Res Ipsa Loquitur. (The facts speak for themselves) Given Grady's long and sordid history with corruption and mismanagement, the fact that most of the power structure in Georgia never tried to really stop it tells me that most people don't much care as long as some other entity was taking care of those that no one else wanted to take care of, THE POOR. I believe the powers that be are counting on the exact same dynamic now. I believe the only thing most of the power players in Georgia want to avoid is for the poor folks to be dropped on the rest of the health care system. As long as they are Grady's problem, in my opinion, most everyone else turns a blind eye.
Thus, we have this game of chicken. The legislature doesn't want to hand Grady Hospital anymore money. They must know that the systemic problems currently going on at Grady aren't going to be solved with this plan, however without an infusion of cash, Grady shuts down. The powers that be at Grady are counting on the legislature blinking first. The legislature meets again in January so, for now, that part of the story is on hold.Enter the JCAHO. Just last week they publicly threatened to revoke the accreditation of Grady Hospital. To put this move in perspective only one hospital, King Hospital in California, has ever actually lost their accreditation. Many of allies on this story have extolled this move as pivotal. I am a lot more skeptical. There must have been the same kind of excitement when State Senator Charles Walker was convicted of 127 felonies at Grady and beyond. Yet, he, along with his daughter and the companies they ran, were the only ones that were convicted, and of course he got the absurd sentence of ten years. In 2004, the department of Health and Human Services conducted an investigation that concluded this...
the conditions at Grady Hospital pose a serious and immediate threat to theThat was pretty damning however besides the then CEO, Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, no one lost their job as a result of this report and the power structure stayed in place despite its damning findings.Even in the late 1990's, Georgia Attorney General found Grady Hospital guilty of Medicare fraud. All of these were opportunities lost to clean up the corruption at Grady Hospital. The reason it didn't happen is also quite complicated, however I believe much of the blame goes to the media in Atlanta, headed by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
health and safety of the patients
In each of these stories, the truth is quite complicated and it was never fully explained to the citizens of Georgia. For instance, in the case of the HHS report, the report itself was damning, however how many people know the specifics of the report? Four departments were singled out: oncology, cardiology, General Surgery, and obgyn, in the report. Each of these departments had heads. None of these people lost their jobs because the specifics of the report weren't ever reported properly in the media. Furthermore, the heads of these departments had one boss, the Chief Medical Officer. His name is William Casarella and he has since been promoted within Emory University. This also happened because the media didn't properly report the specifics of the case. All people knew, if anything, about the investigation was the conclusion. While that was damning enough blame was impossible for a layman to determine without understanding the specifics as I now explain them.
In the case of Medicare fraud in the late 1990's, three departments were also identified: cardiology, obgyn, and oncology. Again, these departments have heads and a Chief Medical Officer above them. All of them including the CMO should have been and would have been fired if the media had properly exposed that case. As you can see the same departments are now coming up in multiple reports. No one outside the Grady structure knows this because the media, either through incompetence or worse, doesn't report the specifics of each case.There is one other case that the media did an atrocious job of reporting. That is the case of Dr. Sam Newcom. He was for about a year, the head of Oncology at Grady Hospital and Emory University Professor. He tried to speak out about the corruption and poor patient care at Grady Hospital and he was fired and ultimately paid off and silenced, but before that he wrote an article entitled Fighting Class Cleansing at Grady Memorial Hospital. You won't find this article in any mainstream Atlanta publication. As head of Oncology, you would be right in concluding that much of his indictment centered on his own department. In other words, oncology is the subject of a great deal of indictment from people of varying motivations and knowledge.
Nothing much has happened to clean up the oncology department and that is because the media has been asleep in reporting the specifics of what is going on at Grady.Then, there is Emory University. When the heat gets hot on Grady, Emory does a great job of distancing itself. In fact, they are doing their own disappearing act now. The truth is that they are for all intents and purposes one and the same. Each of these departments indicted by several different groups was run and almost fully staffed by staff at Emory University. The Chief Medical Officer, Dr. William Casarella, during much of this malfeasance has since been promoted within Emory. In other words, when there is sytemic problems at Grady Hospital, the blame must be laid at Emory University since it is staffed overwhelmingly by Emory professors and students. When Dr. Newcom indicted oncology, he was indicting his own colleagues since oncology is overwhelmingly staffed, like most of Grady Hospital, by Emory University personnel.
Now, what about the JCAHO findings? We know they are threatening to cut off accreditation however why? That, we don't know because for reasons unknown (I plan on calling the JCAHO on Monday for further explanation) the specifics of the findings aren't known. We can assume that multiple specific departments are the cause of it. It might be oncology, General Surgery, obgyn, cardiology, etc. The heads of any of the departments involved must be removed. If your department contributed to an investigation that ultimately lead to the accreditation of your hospital being threatened, THAT IS GROUNDS FOR REMOVAL, in my opinion at least. The current chief medical officer, Curtis Lewis, must be removed. If you are overseeing a hospital and the hospital is threatened with the removal of its accreditation, THAT IS GROUNDS FOR REMOVAL. The Current CEO of Grady Hospital is Otis Story, Sr. He must be removed for the same reasons. In fact, the entire board ought to be removed, however the board is overseen by Vernon Jones, and anyone that knows anything about Jones knows not to expect that to happen. Of course, how many Georgia folks know the real story behind Vernon Jones? That would require the media in Georgia to actually competently report the whole truth.
This whole case proves why the first amendment, the free press, is first not second or tenth. I hope everyone sees what happens when the media itself cedes its own freedoms and doesn't bother to report the whole truth. In order for this cycle to stop, the whole truth of the JCAHO findings must be reported by the media in Georgia. The media must keep the pressure on until all parties are held responsible. That is what has to happen.
Here is what will probably happen. There will be no more then a few more articles in the AJC about this report. Anymore reporting will be on the eventual deal made between Grady and the JCAHO, a deal that will no doubt be made in some back room. The major media in Georgia will NOT reveal the specific departments responsible for this latest investigation. They won't name names and they won't demand for heads to roll. Finally, they won't call Emory out when they distance themselves. Emory University will throw its significant weight around the Georgia Legislature and no one will report it. Grady will be given a golden parachute and none of the obvious systemic problems I have pointed out will ever be reported on or addressed. I hope I am wrong and I will be watching.
For more information on this case, please read this article. Also, please read the recommendations that my colleagues have come up with and compare them to the current plan.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
The Fox Guarding the Henhouse
Let me sum up for anyone that doesn't want to bother to click the link. This is a report that is about thirty pages that is full technical jargon that almost no one can understand.
So, what is the Grady Task Force and why should anyone care? If you have been following my work, you know that Grady Hospital has been in financial turmoil for years and it has now come to a head. Grady Hospital is one of the biggest hospitals, one of the biggest public hospitals, and one of the biggest hospitals for the indigent in the country. It needs a huge infusion of tax payer funds, up to nine digits, or it will close down.
The Grady Task Force is a sort of consulting group, created by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, designed to make recommendations to "fix" Grady Hospital. The very fact that Grady Hospital needs this sort of consulting group is curious in and of itself.
This past spring Grady fired Alvarez and Marsals, a professional consulting firm it hired to recommend ways in which it could avert financial ruin. That was only after paying the firm a cool 300K plus, PER MONTH, and over 3 million dollars total. Consulting firms are nothing new for Grady Hospital. Frankly, Grady Hospital goes through consulting firms the way that Liz Taylor goes through husbands. They pay each of them handsomely and they are even thinking of hiring yet another despite having a "consulting firm" hand picked for them by the Chamber.
One would think that after spending roughly eight digits on consulting firm in about two years, Grady would finally figure out WHAT THE F$%K IS WRONG. That is if these consulting firms are being hired for their advice rather than other reasons. For instance, would it surprise anyone to learn that the principles of Alvarez and Marsals have close ties to Grady board member Michael Hollis?
Would it surprise anyone to learn that all of the prior consulting firms were in one way or another hired for some reason other than their professional qualifications? It wouldn't surprise me, and my proof is in these Latin words, res ipsa loquitor. The facts speak for themselves, and the facts are that at least four consulting firms have produced a hospital on the brink of financial ruin. Again, Grady paid about ten million dollars for all of this consulting. If these relationships were on the level, this money would have produced something better than what we have.
Now, we have the Grady Task Force, an unpaid consulting firm. When, we examine the facts, I think that we will see that the Task Force has other financial considerations in Grady Hospital. The bulk of the members are community and business leaders and that gives the force a sort of rep. They are also individuals and entities with financial and professional interest in Grady, which makes me wonder if their advice is on the level.For instance, there is Robert Brown. He is the former head of the Grady Board. He served on the board during a period in which Grady was convicted of Medicare fraud, State Senator Charles Walker was convicted of 127 felonies, many related to Grady, and an HHS report came out and concluded this,
Like I said earlier, most of the recommendations are quite technical and difficult for the layman to understand. One has caught my eye and it is a plan to make Grady Hospital run by a private corporation. Under this plan, Grady would still receive public funds so the only practical effect would be more secrecy when it came to public fund usage. Given Grady's history with corruption: State Senator Charles Walker, the Medicare fraud, so called double dipping and atrocious patient care, and all sorts of other unproven cases of malfeasance. Is going private and more secretive really the best way to "save Grady". It probably isn't however if I were looking to commit more corruption at Grady, I would certainly want to make it private.
I would love to hear what possible public benefit Grady going private would have. There appears to be none to me, though there is an obvious one if you wanted to commit more corruption. There is a vote coming soon in the Georgia legislature. My own read is that the folks of Georgia don't want the hospital to go private. There appears to be no public good in it. Thus, I can only see one reason for any politician to vote for that plan and by my estimation that vote disqualifies said politician from serving again.
Oh and finally, you want to add insult to injury. After Grady is done listening to the consulting recommendations of the unpaid Grady Task Force, they plan on hiring another paid consulting firm. Frankly, if the Grady Task Force is on the level one would think there would no longer be need for anymore consulting firm. If, that is, the Grady Task Force is on the level.
UPDATE:While I tried to make this piece as comprehensive as possible, if this is your first exposure to the story behind the crisis at Grady Hospital you may very well be quite confused. Thus, I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.
So, what is the Grady Task Force and why should anyone care? If you have been following my work, you know that Grady Hospital has been in financial turmoil for years and it has now come to a head. Grady Hospital is one of the biggest hospitals, one of the biggest public hospitals, and one of the biggest hospitals for the indigent in the country. It needs a huge infusion of tax payer funds, up to nine digits, or it will close down.
The Grady Task Force is a sort of consulting group, created by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, designed to make recommendations to "fix" Grady Hospital. The very fact that Grady Hospital needs this sort of consulting group is curious in and of itself.
This past spring Grady fired Alvarez and Marsals, a professional consulting firm it hired to recommend ways in which it could avert financial ruin. That was only after paying the firm a cool 300K plus, PER MONTH, and over 3 million dollars total. Consulting firms are nothing new for Grady Hospital. Frankly, Grady Hospital goes through consulting firms the way that Liz Taylor goes through husbands. They pay each of them handsomely and they are even thinking of hiring yet another despite having a "consulting firm" hand picked for them by the Chamber.
One would think that after spending roughly eight digits on consulting firm in about two years, Grady would finally figure out WHAT THE F$%K IS WRONG. That is if these consulting firms are being hired for their advice rather than other reasons. For instance, would it surprise anyone to learn that the principles of Alvarez and Marsals have close ties to Grady board member Michael Hollis?
Would it surprise anyone to learn that all of the prior consulting firms were in one way or another hired for some reason other than their professional qualifications? It wouldn't surprise me, and my proof is in these Latin words, res ipsa loquitor. The facts speak for themselves, and the facts are that at least four consulting firms have produced a hospital on the brink of financial ruin. Again, Grady paid about ten million dollars for all of this consulting. If these relationships were on the level, this money would have produced something better than what we have.
Now, we have the Grady Task Force, an unpaid consulting firm. When, we examine the facts, I think that we will see that the Task Force has other financial considerations in Grady Hospital. The bulk of the members are community and business leaders and that gives the force a sort of rep. They are also individuals and entities with financial and professional interest in Grady, which makes me wonder if their advice is on the level.For instance, there is Robert Brown. He is the former head of the Grady Board. He served on the board during a period in which Grady was convicted of Medicare fraud, State Senator Charles Walker was convicted of 127 felonies, many related to Grady, and an HHS report came out and concluded this,
there is a serious and immediate threat to the health and safety of the patientsDoes it sound to anyone as though he has any business being on the board given his history of failure at Grady, and possibly obscene amounts of corruption. Did I mention that Robert Brown is also of RL Brown and Associates, an architecture firm? Would it surprise anyone if his own architecture firm was the recipient of several "sweetheart deals" for additions and upgrades to Grady during his tenure? The list is full of such names: Michael Johns, of Emory University, Michael B. Russell of H.J. Russell (also a recepient of several contracts), John E. Maupin, MD – ex-officio President & CEO Morehouse School of Medicine (another proprietor of Grady Hospital), Phil Humann CEO SunTrust Banks, Inc.(with significant financial ties to Emory University but who doesn't in Atlanta), etc. One would think that if a hospital is near financial ruin the last people that would be in charge of recommendations to fix it would be those who put it there in the first place. Not with Grady, in this case the very same people that were responsible for putting Grady in this position are now in charge of fixing it. That is why I call this piece: The Fox Guarding the Hen House.
Like I said earlier, most of the recommendations are quite technical and difficult for the layman to understand. One has caught my eye and it is a plan to make Grady Hospital run by a private corporation. Under this plan, Grady would still receive public funds so the only practical effect would be more secrecy when it came to public fund usage. Given Grady's history with corruption: State Senator Charles Walker, the Medicare fraud, so called double dipping and atrocious patient care, and all sorts of other unproven cases of malfeasance. Is going private and more secretive really the best way to "save Grady". It probably isn't however if I were looking to commit more corruption at Grady, I would certainly want to make it private.
I would love to hear what possible public benefit Grady going private would have. There appears to be none to me, though there is an obvious one if you wanted to commit more corruption. There is a vote coming soon in the Georgia legislature. My own read is that the folks of Georgia don't want the hospital to go private. There appears to be no public good in it. Thus, I can only see one reason for any politician to vote for that plan and by my estimation that vote disqualifies said politician from serving again.
Oh and finally, you want to add insult to injury. After Grady is done listening to the consulting recommendations of the unpaid Grady Task Force, they plan on hiring another paid consulting firm. Frankly, if the Grady Task Force is on the level one would think there would no longer be need for anymore consulting firm. If, that is, the Grady Task Force is on the level.
UPDATE:While I tried to make this piece as comprehensive as possible, if this is your first exposure to the story behind the crisis at Grady Hospital you may very well be quite confused. Thus, I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.
An Important Email
This piece about the murder of Sheriff Elect Derwin Brown, the "suicide" of Charles Hicks, and how they connect to the dastardly character, Vernon Jones created a bit of a stir and has become a sort of cult favorite in the blogosphere. (Yes, I risk sounding awfully arrogant with that statement however the numbers don't lie) I received an email from someone that wishes to remain anonymous for now in response.
What everyone needs to understand is that nothing that I have exposed has happened in a vacuum and that ultimately it all connects. I can only bring the truth to the open but it is up to the citizens of Atlanta and Georgia at large to act. You can all start by demanding free and open hearings about Grady before one more dime is dropped in their coffers. Furthermore, you can all make a statement by giving Vernon Jones a resounding loss in the primaries. The citizens can demand some answers in the case of State Senator Charles Walker. Unless you all are satisfied with one man, his daughter, and the companies they ran being convicted of 127 felonies, being sentenced to ten years, and no one else even being charged.
Take what I say next or leave it, however your city and state is home to the most obscene corruption I have ever witnessed and given my home city that says plenty. Sadly, as it stands now, the aptly described hero, Sheriff Derwin Brown didn't merely die but he died in vain. Not only did he die in vain but his memory is being spat on everyday that Vernon Jones runs for the U.S. Senate. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a part of the very corruption that is a cancer in your city and state. The very idea that he is campaigning rather than answering for his endless sins is obscene not only to me, but frankly to the memory of Derwin Brown.
You have the power to make this stop. You watched while a hero died and did nothing. You watched while one of the biggest hospitals in the country was pilfered and did nothing. How long will you stand by and watch this happen? Unless, you the citizens, finally rise up nothing will change. I hope that now, once and for all, you will finally say enough is enough.
(UPDATE)I realize that if anyone picks up any part of the story of the Grady crisis in the middle, they will likely get lost. Thus, if this story is your first exposure to the mess surrounding Grady Hospital, you are probably thoroughly confused. Since we can't have that I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.
Mr. Volpe, Greetings... I have recently been reading many of your comments specifically relating to corruption, politics, and particularly Dekalb County.. You Sir are right on point!!! The dynamic that resulted in the ELECTED by the people Sheriff Derwin Brown (as opposed to the establishment "appointed" Sheriff Tommy Brown) was certainly a result of a vast conspiracy not merely the action of a single individual(Sid Dorsey)..
Derwin had himself uncovered many instances of longstanding good ole boy wink and nod politics and outright corrupt practices. Additionally, he aligned himself with individuals ( such as yours truly) who had personal knowledge of corrupt practices and deals that government officials elected in Dekalb had engaged by formed cozyrelationships with business people for their personal gain and pecuniary benefit. All be it strip club operators, county vendors, bail bondspeople, or off duty officers with private security accounts; Derwin represented the end of this type graft. These miscreants wanted him stopped and they stopped him. Maybe by not necessarily pulling the trigger but by creating an atmosphere and culture that resulted in demented and ignorant individuals like Dorsey, Cuffie, et al feeling that it needed to be done and should be done..
These tacitly involved individuals have Derwin's blood on their hand to the same extent as the trigger men...
Moreover, allowing individuals like Vernon Jones, Charles Hicks, Louis Graham, and Thomas Brown (the prmier figurehead) to run the government is nothing short of a farce.. Mr. Hicks may have truly had a crisis of conscience and therein lies the reason for his unfortunate death (be it suicide or murder). The real power brokers (Bob Wilson, Ray Suddeth, Mark Dehler, Frank Redding, and Sembler) are the ones reaping the real benefits $$$ from these shenaigans in Dekalb County government over the last 15 years. Unfortunately, it is at great cost to the taxpayers and underminds the sheer fiber that our Constitution is foundationed upon and yes cost at least one hero his life..
What everyone needs to understand is that nothing that I have exposed has happened in a vacuum and that ultimately it all connects. I can only bring the truth to the open but it is up to the citizens of Atlanta and Georgia at large to act. You can all start by demanding free and open hearings about Grady before one more dime is dropped in their coffers. Furthermore, you can all make a statement by giving Vernon Jones a resounding loss in the primaries. The citizens can demand some answers in the case of State Senator Charles Walker. Unless you all are satisfied with one man, his daughter, and the companies they ran being convicted of 127 felonies, being sentenced to ten years, and no one else even being charged.
Take what I say next or leave it, however your city and state is home to the most obscene corruption I have ever witnessed and given my home city that says plenty. Sadly, as it stands now, the aptly described hero, Sheriff Derwin Brown didn't merely die but he died in vain. Not only did he die in vain but his memory is being spat on everyday that Vernon Jones runs for the U.S. Senate. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a part of the very corruption that is a cancer in your city and state. The very idea that he is campaigning rather than answering for his endless sins is obscene not only to me, but frankly to the memory of Derwin Brown.
You have the power to make this stop. You watched while a hero died and did nothing. You watched while one of the biggest hospitals in the country was pilfered and did nothing. How long will you stand by and watch this happen? Unless, you the citizens, finally rise up nothing will change. I hope that now, once and for all, you will finally say enough is enough.
(UPDATE)I realize that if anyone picks up any part of the story of the Grady crisis in the middle, they will likely get lost. Thus, if this story is your first exposure to the mess surrounding Grady Hospital, you are probably thoroughly confused. Since we can't have that I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.
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