Dr. Charles Nemeroff and Emory University's Culture of Corruption

Imagine if a school principal insisted year after year that their school use textbooks made only by one company. even though there were plenty of textbook companies out there. Imagine that this principal defended this company's textbooks and made public statements about how valuable they were in the classroom. Imagine if it is later revealed after more than a decade that while the principal was demanding that this company's textbooks be used at their school the company was paying the principal money to give speeches, advertise for them, and promote their product. Furthermore, it's revealed that the principal didn't even disclose a substantial portion of this income on their taxes. It's not hard to imagine how we would all perceive the principal. Now, imagine if the school board did remove that principal but allowed them to keep another cushy six figure job in the school's administration department even though these revelations came out. In this case, you'd not only determine that the principal was corrupt but you'd also likely conclude that so was the school's entire administration.

For more than a decade, the scenario I just described played out in a much more obscene way between Dr. Charles Nemeroff and Emory University. At the end of last year Senator Chuck Grassley finished an investigation of Dr. Charles Nemeroff. The conclusions were clear. For years, Dr. Nemeroff wrote positive reviews of drugs from companies like Cyberonics, Glaxo Smith Kline, and Pfizer all the while receiving speaking fees, advertising fees, and other gifts of monies from these companies. All toll, Dr. Nemeroff received about $2.6 million. While he wrote all these positive reviews, he never disclosed his financial relationship with these pharmaceutical companies. In other words, while writing about positively about a drug made by Pfizer, Dr. Nemeroff never disclosed that he was receiving money from Pfizer. Furthermore, emails and other correspondences revealed that Emory stonewalled the investigation and mislead the media about their involvement and Dr. Nemeroff's culpability. Finally, and most damning, once Grassley's investigation wrapped, Emory did remove Dr. Nemeroff from head of his department, Psychiatry, but allowed him to stay on as a professor earning six figures. In fact, Grassley uncovered documents that showed that Emory knew about Nemeroff's conflicts for years and did nothing.

The question must be asked, why would Emory allow Dr. Nemeroff to stay on after all this damning evidence was revealed. In the early, 1980's, Dr. Nemeroff earned a reputation in the field of psychopharmocology. He traded on this reputation by getting into bed with the drug companies and getting very wealthy by essentially endorsing their products when he was supposed to be giving objective analysis of them. For at least the last eight years, Emory University knew what he was up to and did nothing. In fact, the only reason that Dr. Nemeroff was even removed as head of the Department is because Grassley's investigation was so damning that they had to do something.

So, the key question is, why did Emory allow all this and why did they keep him on as a professor after all of this was revealed. After all, Dr. Nemeroff is now toxic in his field. He isn't going to get any grants or any money from anyone. He is essentially worthless to the university and his presence only reminds the world of the stain of this scandal.

To understand the answers to these questions, we must put all of this into context. I have written extensively about the scandal at Grady Hospital. That hospital is staffed overwhelmingly by Emory University professors. I stand by my reporting and I believe my series of exposes leave no doubt that Grady Hospital has a systemic culture of corruption in which Emory University plays a critical role. (it is too long to prove in this post so I encourage you to go this link and read all attached links there if you aren't convinced)

I have identified 15 whistle blowers that had psychiatric evaluations done after they blew the whistle on corruption at Grady Hospital. Each and everyone of these evaluations was done by someone at Emory's Psychiatric department. (how's that for INDEPENDENT) That's the department that Dr. Charles Nemeroff ran until late last year. At least four were done by Nemeroff himself though as head of the department he would have been in a position to know and direct each evaluation. Each evaluation painted the whistle blower as having some sort of psychological problem. At least three, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Diane Owens, and Jim Murtagh, were eventually paid off and silenced by Emory University. It goes without saying that a psychiatric evaluation, especially one by someone as respected as Nemeroff was then, would devastate the career of any academic.

The most significant evaluation was done on Dr. Jim Murtagh. That's because for several years Dr. Murtagh was a part of the Conflicts of Interests committee at Emory University. In fact, the conflicts were so obscene and brazen that medical students doing their psychiatry rounds would be shown promotional videos by the likes of Pfizer in which Dr. Nemeroff appeared to pitch whatever drug he happened to be praising at the time. This group discovered the very conflicts that Dr. Nemeroff was later damned by in the Grassley investigation. Furthermore, Dr. Murtagh later blew the whistle on serious corruption at Grady Hospital to the National Institute of Health. After he blew the whistle, Dr. Nemeroff personally evaluated Dr. Murtagh. (talk about an ironic conflict of interest) In fact, this article describes how Dr. Murtagh was ordered to see a psychiatrist that Emory had chosen. The evaluation described Murtagh as unstable and dangerous and as he (Murtaugh) says in the article.

I will never get an academic job again. . . . My life and dreams have been uprooted.

The article goes on to point this out.

Jan Gleason, assistant vice president in Emory's office of communications, said the administration cannot comment on Murtagh's case. She also declined to comment on what procedures the university uses to determine when a mandatory psychiatric examination is warranted, when the administration began using such exams, or how many exams it has ordered. According to an account in the Emory student newspaper, Emory Wheel, in the last three years the administrators ordered five tenured faculty, who were critics of administration policies, to undergo psychiatric examination as a prelude to breaking their tenure and firing them.

We wouldn't know much of this because Dr. Murtagh was silenced, except State Senator David Shafer fought to release the documents related to Murtagh's case because of his own ongoing investigation of corruption at Grady Hospital and Emory University.

So, in fact, Dr. Nemeroff's case is much more than merely a corrupt psychiatrist getting into bed with drug companies. In fact, you could think of Dr. Nemeroff as a hired psychiatric hitman against any threats to Emory. For years, Emory University corrupted Grady Hospital. Whenever a professor stepped forward to blow the whistle, Emory would send in Dr. Nemeroff to call them crazy and thus smear them and thus ruin their reputation. For this, Emory looked the other way while he corrupted his profession. That's why they can't fire him. He knows too much. They're in bed together in the corruption.

The Broken Corrupt Record of Emory University

This is the main page of the U.S. Finance Committee's investigation entitled Aligning Incentives: The Case for Delivery System Reform. It is an ongoing investigation which Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Max Baucas recently updated. It is an investigation that centers on a Professor Charless Nemeroff currently a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University. He was until recently the Dean of the Department. According to the findings currently published for years Nemeroff took money from firms like Cyberonics, Glaxo Smith Kline, and Pfizer. For this money he published favorable articles about many of their drugs. Rarely if ever did he disclose his financial relationship with these companies when he published these puff pieces. Furthermore, while accepted about $2.6 million in contributions from these pharmaceuticals, he only reported about $90,000 in contributions. As such, not only was he bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical industry for eight years, but he evaded paying taxes on most of these bribes.

In this letter from Senator Charles Grassley, Grassley details a web of fraud, tax evasion, and an utter failure to report repeated incidents of conflict of interest.



This is a copy of a chain of emails within the Medical Department of Emory University on July 20, 2006. In it, one of the Deans of the Medical School, Claudia Adkison, is corresponding back and forth between Nemeroff and her own superiors. She admits to attempting to cover up this egregious fraud. She even alludes to being thankful that a Wall Street Journal reporter wasn't

sophisticated enough to ask the right questions

...

in working on handling the reporter I tried to make this story go away because Emory's name is in the middle of it.

...

I am embarrassed and uncomfortable that I write to colleagues around the country to try to defend this when I know all the issues.

(I wonder what the right questions would have been)
More than one internal correspondence within Emory University show that the school was aware of the fraud going back as far as 2000. Only last month was Nemeroff finally removed from being the Dean of the Psyschiatry and Behavioral Science. He continues to be employed as a full and tenured professor making well over six figures. Nemeroff appears to have made $2.6 million in income from the cumulation of payments from all these drug companies in an eight year period. He only reported about $90,000 in fees.



To understand the total context of this story you need to go back to 2000 to another case involving Emory University. The National Institute Health approached then Professor Jim Murtaugh of the Pulmonology Department. Murtaugh began to blow the whistle on misuse of Federal NIH grant money. In July of 2001, Emory University and Jim Murtaugh entered into an agreement in which Emory University paid $1.6 million for his silence. Soon after that, docuements related to the NIH investigation began to disappear, and soon after that, the investigation was swept under the rug and went away.



In June of 2004, the Department of Health and Human Services approached Kevin Kuritzky, then a medical student at Emory University, about illegal and unethical activities at the V.A. Hospital Emory staffs and Grady Hospital, which Emory also staffs.

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.

In April of 2004, Kevin Kuritzky was expelled from Emory University 41 days prior to when he was scheduled to graduate. The reasons given related to a handful of tardiness by Kuritzky. The information that Kuritzky provided eventually lead to another investigation of Grady Hospital that concluded

the conditions at Grady Hospital pose an immediate and grave danger to the health and safety of the patients.

Nearly the entire staff of Grady Hospital is faculty and students from Emory University. Kuritzky described being left alone as a medical student without any supervision while he took care of an entire step down unit for days on end.



On top of this, Grady Hospital was also implicated when corruption there and beyond lead to the conviction on more than 130 counts by then State Senator Charles Walker.



The current investigation is both remarkable in the brazen manner in which the corruption is carried out and in the total lack of context that the investigators and the media place on it. It seems with each successive investigation no one from the media to the investigators seems to put two and two together. The common thread is Emory itself. In fact, most of the players remain the same. One player I haven't mentioned yet is Kent Alexander. Alexander is the lead Counsel of Emory University. He arrived just before the NIH approached Jim Murtaugh. Formerly, Alexander spent a great deal of time in the Federal Prosecutor's office, including eventually becoming the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia which included Emory University. In the link I provide a mention an email in which he asks his former colleagues to quash the investigation that Kuritzky was leading.



What we have in the current reincarnation of Emory corruption is ironically unremarkable. In fact, just in the last year, Emory has been embroiled in much bigger scandal than its current reincarnation with Nemeroff. At the end of last year, things got so bad at Grady Hospital, Emory University's Medical School's prize possession, that JCAHO, the governing body of hospitals, threatened to shut it down. Had it followed through Grady Hospital would have joined an exclusive club with one other hospital, King Drew in L.A. That hospital got shut down following the disclosure of a tape of a woman begging on the floor for forty five minutes, getting no help, and then dying. For reasons only known to JCAHO, Grady, and Emory after JCAHO threatened to shut down Grady JCAHO eventually dissipated the investigation and it went away. At the same time, Grady was begging everyone in the Atlanta area for dare I say a BAILOUT. They were in need of an infusion of $200 million or face potentially closing. This would have unleashed a medical disaster on the Atlanta area. Grady is not only one of the world's biggest hospitals it is the primary care facility for almost the entire indigent population in the area and provides the only trauma center for hundreds of miles.



As such, Grady was finally given a lifeline only that lifeline came from the Woodruff Foundation. This foundation is named for former Coca Cola CEO Robert Woodruff. Woodruff's name also graces an enormous amount of the buidings at Emory University. While there is no direct links between the Woodruff Foundation and Emory University many Emory faculty and administrators can also be found on the board of Woodruff. Grady has and continues to pay Emory University $50 million yearly in order to staff its hospital. After being infused with money, the hospital also created a 501(3)C board to oversea the hospital. Much of the board is made of folks from Emory and Woodruff and Pete Correll can be found on pretty much every board.



For real conflicts of interest we only need to look no further than Pam Stephenson. She is currently simultaneously a State Senator, Chairwoman of the Board of Grady, and it's interim CEO. As the head of the Board, she played a key role in securing herself the interim position of CEO. Furthermore, she was instrumental in the peculiar firing, after only seven months on the job, of Otis Story Jr, the previous CEO.



In other words, everything currently revealed in the case of Charles Nemeroff has been done by the powers that be at Emory University over and over and in much worse scenarios really. Just think about this. Charless Nemeroff received millions in unreported income. He failed to disclose cash payments while he wrote favorable articles in trade journals for companies that paid him routinely. He failed to disclose consistent conflicts of interest while he acted in much the same way as a hired gun for most of the pharmaceutical companies. For this, he was asked to step down from his post as Dean of his college. He didn't however lose his job entirely and continues to draw a six figure salary from Emory. Kevin Kuritzky was late to classes on a handful of occasions and he was kicked out of Medical School and deprived of a medical career entirely.



This is the proper context of this story. It is a story incidentally that has been reported, poorly I may add, in the New York Times, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and the Wall Street Journal. The Emory Wheel has dedicate all of four articles to the matter. This one commends Emory University for its handling of the situation and points out that the investigation is still ongoing which would mean it continues for a ninth year.



The reality is that this latest piece of brazen corruption is the latest in a long line of seeming never ending corruption at Emory University. Whistleblowers are routinely silenced. The media is incompetent, corrupt or both.

Some Much Needed Grady Hospital Legislation

Three new bills all authored by State Senator David Shafer (R-Duluth) recently passed the Georgia Senate. Shafer was instrumental in getting the details of the settlement agreement between Emory/Grady and Dr. Jim Murtaugh and he has been a leader in trying to get substantive reforms at Grady.

Breaking down the problems at Grady Hospital into broad strokes you have several problems including: a lack of oversight, a consistent pattern of conflict of interest (for instance Robert Brown, then prominent board member awarded his own architecture firm a lucrative contract), retaliation against whistleblowers and a lack of protection for whistleblowers (for instance whistleblower Joyce Harris was the only one to loser her job as a result of the Charles Walker fiasco), and a lack of accountability on the part of Grady Hospital and its partners. (for instance Emory University gets paid a lump yearly sum to staff Grady and that sum has no contingencies) Keep these things in mind as I analyze the two laws that just moved through the Georgia Senate.

The first bill, S.R. 722, would create a Senate Oversight Committee over Grady Hospital. The second bill, SB 353, would prohibit an individual from serving on a hospital authority board if that individual or any immediate family member of that individual were an employee or contractor of the public hospital or an employee, director, or contractor of a major vendor of the public hospital.

Now, if you are veteran of my work on this story, these two bills should sound familiar. That's because these two ideas were two of several pillars that were part of my own recommendations for fixing Grady. (Of course, when I say my own, I really mean those that my colleagues made as suggestions) Here is what I said about an oversight committee...

Grady also needs to be held accountable, so money will be given in tiers. The state legislature will choose a committee to oversee upgrades in infrastructure, and money will only be given if standards are met.The Grady Board, currently chosen by the Dekalb County CEO (currently Vernon Jones), needs to be elected and it must be split up by districts so that it evenly represents the folks currently treated by Grady Hospital. This board, which would serve four year terms, would be in charge of hiring and firing the Grady CEO.

Here is what I said about eliminating a conflict of interest...

Grady would develop a new position called the Office of Conflict Interest. Each transaction, each finance, each so called deal, would be scoured by this office to make sure that say a board member's architecture firm isn't getting the deal because the owner is on the board. I believe there are many such deals like the one I refer to with Robert Brown and the addition his company got, and that can't happen. This hospital didn't just find itself in financial crisis for no reason. It got there because its financial dealings were corrupted. This office would be in charge of making sure every deal was on the level.

I doubt this is a coincidence and I suspect that many of the same people that have my ear have also made their concerns known to Shafer. None of these folks will be found on the board of Grady, its hierarchy, or in the Grady Task Force. Many of them were run out of Grady by the same folks that corrupted it in the first place.

Meanwhile, the Fulton County Board approved a plan to privatize Grady's board. Now, no one that supports the privatization of Grady has ever explained why or how it will help the situation.I firmly believe that the Grady Task Force has been currupted and that it is NOT looking out for the best interests of the hospital. Furthermore, I believe that the privatization plan is nothing more than an attempt to make Grady even more corruptable.

Of course, the readers can judge for themselves. Compare the two bills brought up by Shafer to the privatization plan and see for yourself which one will have a positive effect on Grady and which one will have a nebulous one.

Epilogue:

The Grady story has many twists and turns, and if you catch it in the middle you are likely to get lost. As such, I have developed this summary to help everyone understand how this hospital got to the brink of disaster.

Emory Wheel/Emory University = Pravda/Soviet Union

Introduction: If this is your first exposure to the matters revolving around the troubled plight of Grady Hospital and the corruption that I believe surrounds it at Emory University and forces in the counties around there, then I suggest that you read the summary that I link to at the end and several times throughout the piece. This story has many mazes and it is difficult to follow and that is one reason that I believe that the obscene amounts of corruption has continued. People simply don't understand the whole story. I believe that what is going on there must be exposed and the piece you are going to read is integral to the whole puzzle and I hope that that if anyone is confused they DON'T merely move on, but read the summary which gives an outline of the entire fiasco. If you do, you should be able to follow this piece as well.

This is the first amendment to the Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

There is a reason why the first amendment is first, not second third or tenth. It is the most important amendment and to me the most important part is the establishment of a free press. While the right to speak freely is virtuous and deeply important, the right of the press is especially important because the press has a reach and power that single individuals don't have.

To understand how important the first amendment is one only needs to look at press that aren't free. In despotic regimes all over the world the press hides the truth from its citizenry and instead engages in the practice of being a mouth piece for their administration. In despotic regimes everywhere the press is a tool of propaganda rather than truth telling.

I believe that the Emory Wheel is engaged in exactly such a practice for the administration at Emory vis a vis Grady Hospital and other malfeasance as any press in any corrupt and despotic regime. The only difference is that in regimes like Iran they cover up murder, slaughter, torture and terrorism while at Emory University they are "merely" covering up the administration's contribution to the pilfering of one of the biggest hospitals in the world, while poor folks get nighmarish treatment and the tax payers have millions of dollars corrupted. Obviously, everything is relative however in this case merely being mentioned in the same breath is not only shameful it is downright tragic.

The unfortunate thing is that the right role of the Emory Wheel is to be a watchdog of its own powerful forces and in their case those forces are the administration itself. Rather than use their first amendment powers to check the administration, that newspaper has become nothing more than a mouthpiece.

The first evidence is a simple word search of the Emory wheel. If you enter Grady Hospital into the Emory Wheel word search, you find 26 articles. Let's compare that to some other searches. The girl's basketball team leads the word searches with 520 articles. (all right the cynic will say that given their sports section this would be natural...fine...) Even the shuttle service is covered more than Grady Hospital. It has 50 articles. The absurdity doesn't end there. The Dalai Lama is referenced more in the Emory Wheel (86 times) than the main teaching hospital at its own medical school.

Keep in mind. Grady isn't merely one of the three biggest hospitals in the country. It isn't merely the main teaching hospital for the Emory University Medical School. The medical school doesn't merely account for about 75% of the revenues at Emory University. Grady hospital is in a state of financial crisis. It has also been cited by JCAHO for patient care. JCAHO is now threatening to revoke Grady's accreditation. This is only the second hospital in the history of hospitals to have such a step taken. The other one being King Drew in California. In other words, there is all sorts of big news all around Grady Hospital. Thus, it isn't merely inexcusable that Grady has a near communication shut down at the Emory Wheel but it is corrupt. I am fond of the Latin phrase, Res Ipsa Loquitur (the facts speak for themselves). Given everything that I just mentioned Res Ipsa Loquitur applies when trying to prove that the Emory Wheel has become a corrupt mouth piece for the administration.

The cynic would argue that incompetence and youth could explain the facts I just laid out. The cynic might be right if those were the only facts.

Let's look at the case of Steve Stein. On September 9th, he wrote this...

It’s not exactly a smoking gun, but the latest revelation in the Grady hospital saga — that Emory may be taking advantage of its influence with the struggling trauma center — raises questions the University must answer soon. State Senator David Shafer (R-Duluth) went on the attack in a recent blogpost (http://www.davidshafer.org/), implying that Emory doctors improperly bill Grady for their services. Similar allegations have already been made, but Shafer outlines the most compelling critique of Emory yet.

Shafer, who based his blog post on a two and a half year old audit of Emory’s record keeping he acquired through an open records request, writes:“[I]n a practice that is denounced by the auditors, its faculty physiciansrecord their time at Grady a mere four weeks each year (one week per quarter)and then make a guess at how much time they spend at Grady for the remaining 48weeks of the year, using the four weeks of recorded time as a guide. Emory thenbills Grady for the full 52 weeks of work. Doing the math, that means there is no documentation for 92 percent of Emory’s bills for supervisory and administrative services.”

This was a rather damning and incendiary article. That's why it was quite peculiar to find the same author eight days later writing this...

A town hall meeting about Grady Memorial Hospital last week served as a perfect metaphor for the troubled trauma center’s saga: snide attacks superseded solutions, chaos trumped compromise and Emory became the focus of unjustified attacks — again.One thing is certain: The crusade against Emory by people like loca lactivist Ron Marshall and state Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) has officially turned into a witch hunt.

Last week, I wrote that Shafer had raised important questions in his blog about the Emory-Grady relationship that the University had to answer. Most importantly, I wanted to know whether allegations that Emory doctors improperly billed Grady for their services were accurate.

Emory has answered these questions and has done so convincingly —the answer is a definite “no.” In a recent press release, School of Medicine Dean Thomas Lawley and Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Michael Johns provided evidence to show that the University’s time-recording practices compare favorably to those at other hospitals. Lawley and Johns made a more than adequate defense of their position. The attacks, however, have not abated.

That is a near 180 degree turn around in eight days. Only Stein knows what motivated him, however the facts as they have come out since have shown that his first article was a lot closer to the truth than his second. If Emory is the victim of "unjustified attacks", why is the hospital that is staffed 90% by their faculty now being threatened with revocation of their accreditation. Furthermore, it was the work of Ron Marshall, the activist that Stein claims was conducting a witch hunt, that was most vital in forcing JCAHO's hand in this matter.

As for Shafer, the other person that Stein refers to as the aggressor in a witch hunt. It was Shafer that lead the charge to unseal the records in the case of Dr. Jim Murtaugh. In it we found out that Dr. Murtaugh was paid off to the tune of 1.6 million dollars and silenced at the exact same time that the NIH was investigating Grady Hospital. Furthermore, Shafer discovered this...

Former Grady trustee Bill Loughrey tells me that the settlement with Dr. Murtagh was never approved or even accurately described to Grady’s board of trustees. He says that he was stunned to learn that tax dollars were paid to Dr. Murtagh, conditioned on his silence. He thinks the agreement is invalid and that the judicial process has been misused.

In other words, a public hospital used public funds to pay off and silence an employee without the permission of its board. Again, Stein can claim that Marshall and Shafer are on a witch hunt however the facts speak for themselves.

Keep in mind that Marshall was a main driving force in the subsequent decision by the JCAHO to threaten Grady with revocation of its accreditation. Again, this isn't a small step but a huge step. This has only happened once before and that was to King Drew. This is the story that force JCAHO's hand.

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 recurring...

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.

Grady is now in a dubious category with a hospital that stood by while a patient pleaded for help for forty five minutes before collapsing on the floor an dying. In other words, JCAHO didn't move simply because some records were misplaced. They moved because the patient care at Grady was equivalent to the case at King Drew. So, while Stein referred to Shafer and Marshall as perpetrators of a witch hunt, it is clear that their concerns weren't merely demagoguery. Stein's contribution to this story end there.

The Wheel's don't. Then, there is this commentary from the editorial staff. (This was entitled Baby Steps for Grady)

It’s two steps forward, one step back for Grady Hospital.

After a two-month recess, Grady’s board of directors has finally agreed to cede power over to a non-profit organization. Such a move follows the recommendations made to the hospital months ago by state politicians, area businesspeople and Emory itself and will allow the hospital to seek funding more easily from outside sources, not just Fulton and DeKalb counties.

But the changeover comes with a catch: The board will allow the new management to take charge only if the Georgia legislature and local business leaders pledge in writing to raise nearly half a billion dollars for Grady — $50 million of which would be due before the board changes power. The legislature will be required to pledge an additional $30 million annually to help keep the hospital up and running. Of particular note to Emory, which along with Morehouse supplies the doctors who work at Grady, the board also wants to freeze current staffing levels at the hospital.

More money for Grady isn’t a bad thing. With funding like that requested, the hospital could pay back its debts, including nearly $45 million in labor costs owed to Emory. Unfortunately, now is not the time for ultimatums from the hospital’s directors. State officials have made it clear they aren’t willing to be told what to do by the governing board of a hospital. If the board can’t reach an agreement with the legislature and other sources of funding, then they say there may be no restructuring, and Grady will be back to square one, struggling to stay afloat.

The reason that I say that this is laughable is that this piece came a week before JCAHO's damning indictment. JCAHO's action means that this hospital is in need of a complete overhaul not baby steps. More importantly, JCAHO's damning indictment or any analysis of it wasn't ever reported in the Emory Wheel. Just this semi puff piece in which they claimed that a privatization plan would allow Emory to seek funds more easily was published in the Wheel.

Next, there is the case of Eileen Smith. Smith is a former veteran staffer, twenty plus years even, of the Emory Wheel. Here is a brief rundown of her story.

The surprise departure of the longtime general manager of Emory University’s student newspaper has journalists there accusing administration officials of trying to assert more control over the twice-weekly paper’s operations.

On Wednesday, Karen Salisbury, assistant dean for campus life and director of student activities at Emory, sent an e-mail to the editor of the Emory Wheel, Geoff Pallay, indicating that Eileen Smith had resigned her position as the paper’s general manager. In that position, Smith helped students garner advertising revenue to fund the operations of the paper.

“I expect that you may want a statement for the paper and also that you may have questions (both from a journalistic standpoint and as a practical matter) about what steps will be taken and when to go about finding a replacement for Eileen,” Salisbury said in the e-mail. “I’m not sure what those answers are just yet.… I’m sure you understand that as a personnel issue all information is confidential, and I am not at liberty to speak to you or anyone else about any details of this matter.” Salisbury was unavailable to elaborate on her comments for this article.Pallay was incredulous. “I talked to Eileen the day before and everything was fine,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “She talked about being in the office the rest of the week.”

Smith had also recently moved to a house closer to Emory’s campus, and she e-mailed several current and former newspaper staff members to share the news of her departure. She declined to comment for this article. Her daughter indicated that she is seeking legal advice about her situation.

First, what is really peculiar is that the article I referenced comes from a blog I found through a Google search not from the Emory Wheel. The story is this. Smith, suddenly over one week end, either resigned or was fired and then immediately became silent regarding the details of her departure. I have been able to discover some more back ground details. First, Smith had been in contact with former Emory student Kevin Kuritzky in the weeks leading up to her dismissal. Kuritzky was a former med student (who just happened to be expelled 41 days prior to graduation) that had leveled serious charges against Emory and Grady Hospital. Kuritzky told me that Smith was ready to publish his story right before she was dismissed. I also found out that Smith's daughter attended Emory at the time of her dismissal and subsequent silence.

A search of Emory Wheel for Eileen Smith finds all of seven articles and NONE, NONE, related to her sudden dismissal and silence. It appears that the sudden, unexpected, and mostly unexplained dismissal of a twenty year staffer from the Emory Wheel is not worthy of being covered in the Emory Wheel. In fact, blogs, the AP, and other outside sources had significantly more information about this story than anything published in the very paper she worked at.

What about Kevin Kuritzky? He has leveled some serious charges against Emory and he has been expelled 41 days prior to graduating from medical school. I would say this is a story. There are two references to Kevin Kuritzky in the Emory Wheel. The first is a story that talks about the initial suit Kevin filed. This story spent far more time discussing Emory's motion to dismiss than anything Kevin had to say and it spent no time detailing any of the specific charges that Kuritzky made against Emory vis a vis their care at Grady and the VA. The second is this one by Dua Hassan claiming that the suit against Emory by Kuritzky had been dismissed. The problem is that the suit hasn't been dismissed but rather Emory won a motion and it has been appealed. This is a peculiar piece of misinformation.

What is more peculiar is that a medical student is mysteriously expelled 41 days prior to graduating. That student claims to have leveled serious and DOCUMENTED charges against the school and the hospital they run (the same hospital that is now in need of 500 million dollars to stay afloat and also is being threatened by JCAHO with revocation of its license) and the school newspaper doesn't see fit to run more than two stories about the matter. Is it not news that a medical student was expelled? What if Kuritzky's allegations are true? Isn't that something the student body needs to know? If an Emory student read the Wheel, they wouldn't know if he was or wasn't telling the truth because his allegations aren't investigated or reported.

Like I said, when proving that the Emory Wheel is nothing more than a corrupt mouthpiece for a corrupt administration, the Latin phrase, Res Ipsa Loquitur, applies.

Now, some cynics may even ask, why should I care? So what if some college newspaper is run poorly or even in a corrupt manner. I believe that the Emory Wheel is vital in the plans of the administration at Emory University. In order for their pilfering of Grady Hospital to continue (If you are still unconvinced that Grady is being pilfered and Emory is in the middle, I suggest you read this summary or a full dossier can be found here) the students at Emory must be kept in the dark. In fact, the administration must even be portrayed in a positive light. Information must disseminated in a very careful manner. God forbid that any student sees something that isn't controlled by the administration. That's why my blog is such a threat to the administration and why their admin IP 170.140.62.42 pays my blog a visit daily. If anything but the carefully crafted image that Emory has wielded is ever discovered by enough of the student body, the perverbial wheels, no pun intended, would come off. Thus, it is my supposition that the Emory Wheel must remain a mouth piece not an independent newspaper in order for the corruption, I believe exists, to continue.

Epilogue:

Much of the information that I have provided in this piece was actually discovered a while ago. I initially held out in writing this piece because I attempted to reach out to the Wheel in an attempt to insist that they do their duty and expose the truth. Because they didn't respond to my request, I am forced to pen this piece. I warned the Wheel that history will judge the heroes and the villains in this case. I warned them that I would play a significant role in the way history was written on this matter. I warned them that if they didn't reach back they would be painted as the corrupt mouthpieces for the corrupt administration that they are. They didn't heed my warning and I was left with this.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, this story has many mazes that can be difficult to follow. You can either read the entire Grady Hospital tag, or more realistically, you can read this summary. Also, Grady Hospital is in need of an overhaul. Despite what the Emory Wheel claims I believe the privatization plan is nothing but a sham. I believe it will only lead Grady further down the abyss. Here are the recommendations that I along with mostly my colleagues have put together.

Attacking Corruption: The Power and Frustrations of the Blogosphere (Updated)

UPDATE: I originally wrote this on my other site Proprietor Nation. It would now be obvious even to the Kossacks that the provacateur and Mike Volpe are one and the same. I have no doubt that my page on the Daily Kos will at some point be removed, however the comments will be here forever.

INTRODUCTION: I have been known to tell many of new found allies in the case of the corruption that I have found at Emory University, Grady Hospital and beyond that our opponents cannot control what I am doing because the internet is not controllable. It is a force beyond anyone's control.

For instance, a few weeks ago I wrote this story linking the murder of Derwin Brown, the suicide of Charles Hicks to a culture of corruption in Dekalb County under its "leader" Vernon Jones. The story started its journey on the front page of Real Clear Politics\ and then traveled its way across the country until hundreds of people began emailing it to each other (I know this through the technical way in which my stat counter tracks my visitors. It is too long and boring to explain so you will have to take my word for it) I even received this email in response to the story.

Mr. Volpe, Greetings... I have recently been reading many of your comments specifically relating to corruption, politics, and particularly Dekalb County.. You Sirare 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

..I received several such emails and a host of new and important contacts as a result of internet travels of that story. No amount of corruption can stand up to the power of the internet, email, and how that dynamics brings everyone together.The feedback hasn't always been good. For instance, I recevied this email from Dr. Michael Ward of the University of Cincinnati. He has some incendiary things about Kevin Kuritzky, the whistle blower that first turned me onto this story.

Mike, Just wanted to let you know that you shouldn't get taken in by Kevin Kuritzky. The guy is a pathological liar and I have personally been taken in
by his stories only to realize that he was flat out lying. I also know numerous other people who have experienced the same. It is quite sad because he is a very charming, intelligent person. He just uses these skills to manipulate people.

Don't get taken in by him.Mike--

Michael Ward

MD,

MBA

Resident

Physician

Department of Emergency

Medicine

University of Cincinnati

I invited Dr. Ward etc. etc. to back his vague and incendiary statements up with examples and evidence. He has declined and since the email is now my property I have decided to use every opportunity to use it to expose him as the fraud. He is of course welcome anytime to back up any of these statements. In the meantime, his own words will be on the internet for everyone to see.

Those are examples of using the blogosphere and the internet for positive and how it becomes the ultimate equalizer. On my site, Dr. Ward etc. etc. is no more powerful than anyone else, and through the reach of sites like Google his own words will be on display for anyone that cares. Now, I have introduced the positives of the blogosphere however this piece is about some of the filth and garbage that you find will navigating through and with that the introduction is over...I will direct everyone to two separate sites in which, in my opinion, all of the worst of the internet came out. First, I have an admission to make. I traced a tentacle of this story down to Florida in the person of Dr. Andrew Agwunobi. He appears to be knee deep in the scandal at WellCare. Since he is currently in the REPUBLICAN administration, I see his exposure as a boon to all Democrats. Well, in terms of size and power the ultimate Democratic blogging site is Daily Kos.

While a true blue Republican would have difficulty there, I simply couldn't ignore their sheer size and numbers. I knew that I couldn't go there as myself, so I went there under the pseudonym, theprovacateur. (I know it is misspelled and so be it.) I received a lukewarm reception to my expose of Dr. Agwunobi. While most of the people that read it liked it, it wasn't nearly as popular as the most recent "expose of a Bush Lie, impeachable offense, and example of incompetence".

Next, I thought I would be more confrontational and inflammatory in a piece that was in response to another piece published by a regular of Daily Kos vis a vis Vernon Jones. Anyone who knows anything about the Kos knows that confrontational and inflammatory are not only welcomed but encouraged there. Welcomed and encouraged that is I found as long as you are attacking what they consider the enemy. Since I dared to attack one of their own, well suddenly the entire Kos site became quite sensitive. (Yes, this is a case of being able to dish it out but not taking it)Here are some examples of the comments...

you need to give some serious thought to your approach to diarying here. You don't raise awareness about an issue by attacking another diarist who wrote something only very indirectly related to your issue, six freaking months ago. I suggest you delete this diary and try again. If Vernon Jones is your problem then write a diary about Vernon Jones. Don't write diaries accusing others of being "pathetic". That's not going to win you loyal readers.

And a last piece of advice: before you issue sweeping statements of condemnation about Kossacks, you'd better know what the f$%k you're talking about, because I will personally guarantee you that whatever the subject, there will be at least one person around who knows 10X more about it than you ever will. Now delete this ridiculous diary so that it doesn't show up on your "permanent record," and welcome to DailyKos.

Keep in mind that Vernon Jones is the subject of much of my wrath. Vernon Jones is most likely a multiple rapist, probably tied to a great deal of personal corruption, and certainly oversees not only a corrupt police force but also a corrupt public hospital. In other words this is a bad guy. Did I mention he is running for U.S. Senate? Yet, most of the wrath is directed at me, not Jones, because the language I used was "inappropriate". Those weren't the most revealing comments though. These two were.

Lots of places besides DailyKos to send this. (7+ / 0-) Recommended by:Rebecca, JeffSCinNY, eeff, joanneleon, sbdenmon, Unduna, Goodbye KittyTPM Muckrakers, Open Left, FireDogLake, Americablog. Go for it.

One more crook killing people doesn't even qualify as news anymore. Good luck.Local GA political blogs (3+ / 0-) Recommended by: Rebecca, JeffSCinNY, joanneleonwould be an even better choice. Tondee's Tavern, for example. Link's in my blogroll, if you're interested, diarist...

These folks, who claim to be appalled by all of this corruption around them, passed on actually doing anything about corruption put right in front of them. It was pretty clear that they like to chat back and forth about all of the supposed corruption they see but can't do anything about, rather than trying to tackle any corruption in front of them. Keep in mind that Jones is running for the Democratic nomination of the U.S. Senate. Despite proclaiming how large and powerful they are whenever they think it matters, they are now suddenly powerless to this corruption.

Not only did I, not Jones and his corruption, become the issue, but they frankly had no motivation to actually challenge any of the corruption that many of them ceded he has caused. While they found nearly endless energy to attack me, they had none left for a real bad guy, Vernon Jones.Of course, what happened vis a vis this piece was nothing to what happened when I published this piece that is a detailed summary of the corruption at Grady Hospital, Emory University and beyond. The first few comments were fine, however since much of my piece linked to my own blog, soon enough people noticed they were reading a conservative. Here are some of the comments that followed.

This is being cross posted with permission of Mike Volpe of Proprietor
Nation

A quick look at the blogroll of PN gives us:

RedState,

Powerline,

Michelle Malkin,

LGF,

Hot Air,

Captain's Quarters,

etc., etc.
Judging by your comment about the radio show, I'm assuming you are "snooper." The top story on your personal blog is "The Leftinistra Brainwashing Our Youth." That blog's tagline currently reads: Dedicated to the men and women of the United States Military fighting the Islamic Menace that our government has wrongly mistaken as a peaceful religion. Call me cynical, but these things make me question your motives for posting here, as well as your read on the situation with Grady Hospital, given your inherent bias

....You have destroyed any credibility you might have here at dKos by the sources you've used in this diary. Your entire theory hinges on the ravings of a far-right loon and the company he keeps, yet you claim that to be "irrelevant."You despise Vernon Jones; we get it. GA Kossacks despise him, as well, so you're not likely to make any new converts. No one outside GA has the time to care. There's a primary or two coming up in the next few weeks, if you hadn't heard. How will that make the Democratic party look? Please. Concern troll much?

...Here are Mike Volpe's "recommended blogs" (3+/
0-)Recommended by:joanneleon, sbdenmon, irishwitch
VolokhConspiracy
Varifrank
Tygrrrr Express
Twin Cities Conservative
The Mortgage Reports
The Minority Report
Take Our Country Back
Simon Power
Red State
Powerline Blog
No Hillary Clinton
Michelle Malkin
Michael Yon
Michael Totten
Little Green Footballs
Iraq the Model
IMAO
Hot AirHinz Sight Report
Gerry Charlotte Phelps
Faultline USA
Draft General Pace
Deborah Lipstadt
David Frum
Daniel Pipes
Captains QuartersAustin Bay
Side note: There is a lot of room for abuse when inner city hospitals are used as teaching hospitals for universities -- that particular symbiotic relationship is a very tricky one. At the same time, this write-up is at least 75% innuendo. It reads to me like Emory is the presumptive "bad guy," when in actuality the problem is lack of oversight in hospital administration. So, no, poor medical care for the indigent is not a partisan issue, but the way this is written up sure seems to have a David Horowitz ring to it. I think you could re-assemble these facts without that central assumption and have a piece that would get a better reception.

Here is my personal favorite...

And libelous bulls$%t at that.They've got a good law school, too. You might invest in an alumni directory, unless Michael Horowitz has already lined up an attorney for you.

So, does everyone understand? I am wrong because I am a Conservative, and Emory can't be corrupt because they have a good law school. As Kevin Kuritzky pointed out to me long ago, this is not a partisan issue, it is an issue of corruption. The irony is that almost all of the allies I have gotten on this story are themselves Democrats. The worst part was that I was arguing with people who had never heard of this story before. They proceeded to think that they knew more than me and they were confident in their thoughts because I was linked to a Conservative. (at this point they still assumed that theprovacateur and Mike Volpe were two different people) For instance, I got this comment...

Yes, I read the piece. Mike Volpe alleges four professors were "paid off" -- but only gives information about one. The link shows that Dr. Murtaugh's lawsuit centers on not getting a promotion, and he get a settlement. He also alleged medicare fraud. But to say that the settlement was a payoff to silence him about the medicare fraud is a gross over simplification. I conceded that there was probably some wrongdoing by Emory. But you completely ignored my point that this piece is fundamentally dishonest because of its anti-Emory framing -- it seems like very few of the issues are actually Emory's fault. They get paid 50 million because they staff the hospital and inner city hospitals don't staff themselves. By doing so, you are conceding the innuendo argument.

I'm assuming that you're repeating this and are being used, and are not a troll yourself. Think of our reaction this way: suppose a diary comes up that focuses on an important misuse of CIA intelligence that led to the Iraq War, but frames it as being the fault of Senator Rockefeller because he was on the Intelligence Committee. You and I can agree on the importance of the problem, but find the framing dishonest. That's what we're saying here, and I'm not criticizing you, just trying to get you to see that supporting the recognition of the problem doesn't mean uncritically accepting everything in a diary about the problem

...This poster is referring to four doctors that I said were paid off. They say that I have no evidence because I have little to say about any of them besides one, Dr. Jim Murtaugh, and this poster seems to find this as evidence of my shotty reporting. Keep in mind they were paid off and silenced, and so by nature there will be little evidence of the specifics of each case. The only reason that Murtaugh's case came up is that State Senator David Shafer lead a Congressional delegation to unseal the settlement. Furthermore, someone at Kos laughably claims that my piece is dishonest because I take a preconceived bias. First, I do. I am certainly biased against the administration. This comes after two months of research in which I have concluded that they pilfer Grady Hospital, land a sweetheart deal at the tax payer's expense, and pay off or expel anyone that gets in their way. (they will even make articles disappear from internet archives if it is discovered those will make them look bad) Of course, what is laughable is the Kos claiming that an arguement is flawed if it is biased. If that is the case, they have condemned each of their own diaries.

What was really insulting is that I have no doubt that almost no one I was arguing with had even heard of Grady Hospital before I pointed it out to them. The only reason this became confrontational is because they thought that a Conservative had provided the sourcing. At this point, I have spoken with so many insiders on so many angles of this scandal that the only people that know more about it are the insiders themselves. I have traced tentacles to the Dekalb Police Department, the WellCare Scandal, and I am now working on connections to real estate developers and possibly even the Dixie Mafia. I bring this up not to toot my own horn but so that everyone understands how well I understand this story. For someone to challenge me without knowing much of anything is simply insulting.

Of course, the lunacy is not exclusive to the left of the blogosphere. I got into a verbal joust with some commenters on the Georgia blog, Peach Pundit. There were mostly Republicans and Georgia residents and so their problem with me was entirely different. Here are some examples of the comments...

Fascinating that you are so connected and interested while living in Illinois. And as far as Derwin Brown. He was my sheriff and a good man. His death was heinous. So is your ridiculous attempt to tie it into this mess

....It isn’t “going private” at all. Just being restructured as a non-profit, likely with state funds being provided. And given the way the laws work down here regarding following state money, I doubt it will be “impossible” to follow the money. Interesting that you throw around the term private since from the beginning that’s been a codeword for many of the anti task force activists down here. But what do I know? It’s not like I ever talk to anyone involved

....Oh thank the good Lord above we gots somebody smart to show us the way. Not one of us ignorant hicks have ever questioned why some many consulting firms were hired. Not one of us have questioned the mismanagement of Grady. Lord blessus all that we now have this fine man to show us the way. To lead us out of the wildereness where we are all a party to such sin

....Oh I don’t know, Jace. Maybe the repetitive condescension that we don’t know what’s going on. Repeatedly ignoring the fact that some have raised many of the same questions. Conspiratorially tying the Derwin Brown murder to corruption of Grady. Transitively tying any questioning of his theories into sheep like acquiesence to being rolled by the Devil. Continually making Charles Walker’s conviction about Grady when mostly it was not. And even when us ignorant hicks refute points fall right back to saying we don’t know what we are talking about. It could be that unless we see through the God-given clear lens of Mike Volpe, we just don’t know what the hell we are talking about. Nah. It’s none of that.

In this case, it came down to tone and territory. I was too confrontational and condescending, and of course I wasn't from Georgia. I got only one defender on the site...

Why does everyone seem out to get this “mike volpe” guy? He is raising some
interesting points

There are several things here. First, as I later pointed out, Derwin Brown was never sheriff because he was murdered (by the outgoing sheriff and a conspiracy of deputies and others in the police department) so the initial statement is not only condescending but factually wrong.

Second, the death of Derwin Brown and the corruption at Grady can be tied to one man, Vernon Jones, who was connected to both. (He is still currently the CEO of Dekalb County and not only overlooks the DEKALB POLICE DEPARTMENT, which Brown was elected sheriff of, but he also picks the board at Grady Hospital) Whether or not the corruption is linked directly together or not is up for debate, however I have no doubt that at minimum there is a culture of corruption that links all of it together.

Now, as for the reference to the new plan by the Grady Task Force, it is too in depth for an explanation here, so if you want to know my thoughts, please read my piece on it. (also, I welcome you to read the recommendations that me and my allies have come up with for Grady Hospital)Also, they claim that most of the corruption committed by State Senator Charles Walker wasn't at Grady Hospital. While this is true, Walker's crime was expansive and not very picky, most of the evidence of his corruption came from whistleblower Joyce Harris, who was the head of H.R. at Grady Hospital.Their points finally turned from factually wrong to absurd with this comment...

Is it possible that the convictions were tagged on solely to Walker because folks were out to get him? I’m not saying he didn’t do wrong - believe me, as an Augusta native, he did a lot of things wrong and deserved punishment - but he also had a lot of guys gunning for him, particularly a lot of folks in Augusta.Could it be that the focus was to get Walker and not to investigate Grady? And that getting Walker meant piling up the felony charges?

Here is how I refuted it...

If they were “out to get him”, why did he get ten years for 127 felonies or less than a month per felony. Folks weren’t “out to get him”. Folks were out to keep his affair as quiet as they could. If the chief prosecution witness fingers everyone, then why isn’t anyone else investigated?If Walker committed so much crime that it lead to 127 felony convictions, and people were on the level, they would want to follow it further and see if the hospital involved had systemic corruption in and that lead to his crimes? That is, if people were on the level.

My point was never disputed and ultimately nothing I said in any of the debate was proven inaccurate. (something I can't say for those that I argued with)I bring up these factual points to once again point out that I was arguing with people that were frankly a lot less knowledgeable. Once again, rather than focusing on the merits of the corruption and finding ways to connect through the power of the internet, these commenters made me the story.The facts were no less important to these Georgia Republicans than they were to Kos liberals.

I was combative and an outsider, they immediately assumed I was wrong. They never had their facts straight, but that didn't stop them from arguing. Ultimately, rooting out the corruption in their own state wasn't the important thing. What was important was "beating" so to speak an outsider that they felt was demeaning their state.

In both cases, an opportunity was lost for people to band together to take on bad folks. Instead, it turned into the twenty first century technological version of a school yard arguement. Rather than focusing on the real bad guys, the ones perpetrating the corruption at Grady, Emory and beyond, they focused on me. I went out searching for allies in a story that not only needs to be told, but found the worst of human nature in folks from both sides of the aisle.

UPDATE:I realize that anyone that picks up this story somewhere in the middle may get quite confused. For instance, if you happen to read this particular piece but you aren't familiar with the goings on at Grady, you will likely get lost in this particular story. 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.

My Recommendations for Fixing Grady Hospital

Introduction: If you haven't been following the plight of Grady Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, here is a quick run down. Grady is one of the biggest hospitals not only in the Southeast but frankly in the entire country and the world. It has also been the scene to a great deal of corruption throughout the years. It has faced a series of financial crises throughout the years, however none are as critical as its current. Grady Hospital faces being closed down unless it is infused with cash to the tune of an estimated half a billion dollars according to some reports. Since Grady Hospital is the main hospital for the poor of Dekalb, Fulton and other area counties, this has become the subject of great debate and controversy. Because hospitals that cater to poor folks have limited profit potential, Grady is also naturally a public hospital. Thus, in the end, the taxpayers own it.

Enter the Grady Task Force which is a sort of consulting firm created by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce which has recommended a series of steps to save Grady. If you look at the link, you will see that for the most part the report is quite technical, however there is one recommendation which has become quite controversial. That is a plan to make the board quasi private. It should also be noted that Grady has paid four separate consulting firms about eight digits just in the last two to three years already. They have already hired another consulting firm even after the so called recommendations of the Grady Task Force.

I believe this plan, like the force itself, is nothing more than a sham and I wanted to offer my own alternative plan.

I want to point out that almost none of the ideas are actually my own, but rather those of folks that I have spoken with since I began tracking this story nearly two months ago. None of these folks ever saw any power at Grady, and I believe that after you read my plan you will see that there is no doubt that the wrong people are in charge. You will also see what it would actually take to turn Grady around.

The first thing Grady Hospital needs is some serious improvements in its infrastructure. For instance, its HVAC system is totally shot. Doctors have told me that sometimes it gets so bad at Grady that they themselves can't breathe. Now, imagine if you are a patient that has a breathing problem, what would such a state do to you. There is asbestos in the wall. The elevators are old and they breakdown all the time. There are patients that are in critical condition and time is of the essence. If they need to be moved from floor to floor, you simply cannot have the elevators broken. Doctors tell that this can be a regular occurrence. The computer system for tracking their medical records is old, from the seventies people tell me. Many times patients history can't easily be looked up, and thus allergies and other ailments may not be known. The building simply must be brought up to code.

If this is shocking to you, and you think this couldn't happen because the patients would talk, keep in mind the patients are the poorest folks in the area. They simply have no alternative and many times they don't know any better.One of the tragedies at Grady is that they recently had a giant addition added. That's right, while their infrastructure was falling apart they added a huge addition about five years ago. If you want to know why, you maybe interested in knowing that powerful board member Robert Brown also owns an architecture firm and while the firm is equipped to add on to hospitals they can't fix elevators. (He is also a prominent member of the Grady Task Force and one main reason why the force is in my opinion a total sham)

Grady also needs to be held accountable, so money will be given in tiers. The state legislature will choose a committee to oversee upgrades in infrastructure, and money will only be given if standards are met.The Grady Board, currently chosen by the Dekalb County CEO (currently Vernon Jones), needs to be elected and it must be split up by districts so that it evenly represents the folks currently treated by Grady Hospital. This board, which would serve four year terms, would be in charge of hiring and firing the Grady CEO.

Instead of paying Emory University and Morehouse (the two schools that supply the bulk of Grady staff) a flat fee for their services, the Grady Board would institute a tiered sort of grading system (based on JCOHA grades, patient feedback and whatever other measurements they chose). Keep in mind that as representatives of the people, the board would be giving Emory and Morehouse the people's money. This means they would be more inclined to grade the two schools harsher than softer. This would give the two schools that much more incentive to perform better.

Also, the two schools would be responsible for their own malpractice insurance. Unbelievably, at least at Emory, Grady pays for the malpractice insurance of Emory professors and medical students. Essentially, this means that Emory, a private institution, has it so the public, through a public hospital, covers its malpractice insurance. Not only is this an obscene misuse of public funds, but obviously can lead to all sorts of abuse. Obviously, if you aren't responsible for your own malpractice insurance, you are more likely to act a lot more recklessly. I believe that is exactly what Emory has done to tragic results. This will remove that motivation.

The state legislature would set up a committee that would be in charge of funding Grady. They would set their own set of benchmarks for receiving funding and would also be in charge of deciding how much Grady Hospital got. Since the legislators are also spending the people's, or their constituents, money, they would also be disinclined to grade easily. This would give the board more motivation to make sure performance is up to par. We saw just how tragic it could be in the case of State Senator Charles Walker when funds are determined by corrupt reasons rather than performance.

Grady would develop a new position called the Office of Conflict Interest. Each transaction, each finance, each so called deal, would be scoured by this office to make sure that say a board member's architecture firm isn't getting the deal because the owner is on the board. I believe there are many such deals like the one I refer to with Robert Brown and the addition his company got, and that can't happen. This hospital didn't just find itself in financial crisis for no reason. It got there because its financial dealings were corrupted. This office would be in charge of making sure every deal was on the level.

Grady would need to update its by laws. First, it would no longer be allowed to have retaliatory behavior against whistleblowers. People must be able to report malfeasance without the threat of losing their job. Joyce Harris lost her job when she blew the whistle on State Senator Charles Walker. I also firmly believe that Kevin Kuritzky was expelled for blowing the whistle on serious corruption as well. These are jus two examples and I believe there are many more. There needs to be a truly anonymous tip line so that malfeasance can be reported without threat of retaliation.

Grady Hospital can no longer be allowed to stall in providing financial records to outside sources. I have been told by more than one person that getting records can be maddeningly time consuming. In fact, I was told that by the time records were received the incident or incidents in question were so far in the past that most didn't care. For instance, it took my sources several years to finally figure out that Brown's company received the lucrative contract. Grady Hospital would now be the subject of stiff fines if records aren't turned over in a timely manner. Furthermore, an outside party, a judge or a lawyer, would act as a mediator, in disputes over records requests. Finally, the by laws would declare that Grady would from now on follow due process.

Grady Hospital would no longer be allowed to settle any lawsuits under seal. I have counted four Emory professors that I believe have been paid off. The case of Dr. Jim Murtaugh is the only one that has been unsealed so far and it provides a glimpse into just how far some will go to keep malfeasance quiet. This can't go on, and it will have to be outlawed.From now on, meetings held on the finances of Grady Hospital would be open to the public and the media. Currently, those meetings, like many others, are held in secret. Secrecy is a bedrock of corruption. By turning Grady over to a private board, it would make it even easier to maintain secrecy, and it is this diarists contention that secrecy is the end goal of the private board plan. In order to fix Grady, we need the opposite of secrecy. We need everything to be open. Keep in mind that Grady is a public hospital. It uses public funds. The public has every right to know where those funds are going. Open finance meetings are one way to assure that.

With these recommendations Grady would actually have a chance to thrive long term. While I am sure there will be those that will poke holes in it, I would dare anyone to compare my plan, less than two pages, to the plan by the Grady Task Force.

Kent Alexander: Power Broker (Updated)

There is a name that lurks behind the scenes in much of the scandal and corruption associated with Emory University and Grady Hospital and that person's name is Kent Alexander. It should be noted that there is little or no evidence ties Alexander to any wrongdoing on his own part. What is peculiar is how often he finds himself in the middle of scandal at Grady, Emory and beyond.




Kent Alexander first burst on the scene as the son of legendary Atlanta area attorney Miles Alexander. His first brush with fame came in the mysterious case of money laundering by BNL Savings, an Italian government run bank, to the government of Iraq on the eve of the first gulf war. The case is detailed in depth in the book, The Shell Game, by Peter Mantius. At the time, Alexander was assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. He was the lead attorney for the U.S. on the case. At the time, King and Spaulding, arguably the most powerful and prestigious law firm in Atlanta, represented BNL. According to The Shell Game, Alexander met with an MI6 agent who told him of obscene amounts of corruption. The agent implicated the entire structure of the bank, and the agent claimed that for political reasons the intelligence apparatus of Italy, the U.S. and Britain looked the other way. The book claimed that the agent provided documentation of all the assertions.





For whatever reason according to the book, Alexander left the meeting and decided to pin the entire scandal on the bank manager Christopher Drogoul, who was in his twenties at the time. Drogoul was prosecuted and eventually convicted and upon his conviction the entire case was closed. This of course made the clients of King and Spaulding happy since the rest of the apparatus of the bank was spared prosecution.

This case also has some troubling parallels to another case I have referenced, State Senator Charles Walker. More than a decade later, while Alexander was now Emory General Counsel, State Senator Charles Walker was convicted of 127 felonies. He was the only one convicted and that case was also wrapped up after his conviction. Of course, it should be noted again that despite not flipping on anyone Walker received the outrageously light sentence of ten years for 127 felonies.



On the strength of the Drogoul conviction along with other good deeds, Alexander was eventually promoted to U.S. Attorney a couple years later. (for reference this is the equivalent of posts once held by both Rudy Giuliani and Elliot Spitzer in their own districts) In the summer of 1996 Atlanta held the Olympics. The sad and ultimately tragic case of Richard Jewell is well documented and it doesn't need to be repeated. While the media has portrayed his role in the affair in a variety of ways, (he meaning Alexander himself) the facts stand out to me at least. He was the lead prosecutor. Jewell was under suspicion for almost ninety days and everyone agrees that ultimately there was absolutely no solid evidence against him.


About a year later, Alexander resigned from the U.S. Attorney's office. He landed on his feet with a cushy position with King and Spaulding. That would be the same King and Spaulding that was the fortuitous recepient of Alexander's narrow investigation of BNL. King and Spaulding is also the firm on retainer for Emory University.


After a couple years, Alexander moved over to lead general counsel at Emory University in 2000. Emory and Alexander joined forces at a fortuitous time. That's because Grady, the hospital Emory helped run, was then under investigation by the National Institute of Health. That investigation ultimately lead nowhere however at least four people were silenced by Emory in connection to the investigation: Dr. Sam Newcom, Dr. Jim Murtaugh, Dr. Diane Owens, and Dr. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. Dr. Jim Murtaugh's case has recently had some new developments. Here is what State Senator David Shafer was able to recently discover.

Former Grady trustee Bill Loughrey tells me that the settlement with Dr. Murtagh was never approved or even accurately described to Grady’s board of trustees. He says that he was stunned to learn that tax dollars were paid to Dr. Murtagh, conditioned on his silence. He thinks the agreement is invalid and that the judicial process has been misused.

Let me explain for everyone. Dr. Jim Murtaugh settled with Emory University and Grady Hospital right around the time that this investigation was going on. He settled for roughly 1.6 million dollars and each side was under total communication lockdown. In fact, the lockdown was so extreme that even if either side was subpoened the court would need to be notified and there was time available for the subpoena to be quashed. This is of course important because it is very likely that Murtaugh had information relevant to the NIH investigation and this agreement allowed Grady and Emory stop Murtaugh from testifying. Furthermore, as lead counsel Alexander would be in control of the negotiations for his employer. He was in so much control that it is his signature next to Murtaugh's in the ultimate agreement.



Now, what Shafer is saying is that the board of trustees at Grady were never notified of the settlement. This is important because Grady is a public hospital and thus their portion of the settlement would then be tax payer money. As lead counsel, Alexander would be responsible for every bit of the agreement.

By 2004, Grady was again in the middle of another scandal. This one involved State Senator Charles Walker. Despite being convicted of 127 separate felonies, Walker was the only one charged and convicted in the case. Not only is it logical to think that it is impossible to commit this much crime on your own, but one only needed to be in the courtroom hear of more involvement. The lead prosecution witness, Joyce Harris, accused much of the higher ups at Grady of all sorts of wrong doing: witness tampering, intimidation, and kickbacks, etc. Despite all sorts of startling accusations from the witness most responsible for putting Walker away, the prosecution decided to end its investigantion with him.

Now, you might be saying well that's Grady and Alexander was employed by Emory. That is true however the entire Grady staff was Emory faculty and most of the Grady upper level management was also employed by Emory. Thus, while they may seem to be two separate entities to some they are in reality quite interlocked.


Alexander then resurfaces in the case of whistleblower, Kevin Kuritzky. Kuritzky was expelled several months after another investigation of Grady was completed. This one was done by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the Department Health and Human Services. The conclusion of that report was scathing.

an immediate and serious threat to the health and safety of the patients

Emory maintained that Kuritzky was expelled for missing required clerkship training involving patient care, lying to his professors, and engaging in other unprofessional, dishonest and unethical conduct, while Kuritzky maintains that it was retaliation for blowing the whistle on many of the same type of practices mentioned in the report. While Emory outwardly maintains even today that his expulsion had nothing to do with any incendiary charges on his part, I have found an email from Alexander to the then assistant U.S. Attorney that indicates otherwise.

Amy (Amy Kamenshien then Assitant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia) as you know we have had several discussions in the past regarding Dr. Murtaugh and his allegations regarding Emory/Grady. Recently he has had contact with former medical student Kevin Kuritzky. You may in the near future be hearing from Kuritzky or his attorneys and I would advise not pursuing it further. Hope all are keeping well,

Kent.

Clearly, Alexander expected that Kuritzky was going to say something and he moved to pre empt the investigation. Kuritzky ultimately ended up pursuing his case civilly and that is still pending.


Alexander had one more run in with Kuritzy of note. According to Kuritzky just as the legal process for his civil case was starting, (Before any formal paperwork was even filed) Alexander arranged a meeting between Kuritzky, his attorneys and Emory attorneys, headed up by Alexander of course, and finally a mediator. According to Kuritzky, at this meeting Alexander addressed Kuritzky in this manner,

if you pursue this further, we will smear you so badly that even North Korea won't touch you

According to Kuritzky this was said in front of his attorneys and the mediator who went to the third grade step of calling a timeout in its aftermath. The parties were separated into two different rooms so that everyone could cool down, however Alexander wasn't formally reprimanded for this statement.

The last notable moment in Alexander's tenure came last month when he responded to an Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial regarding unsealing the records of the Dr. Jim Murtaugh case. ( those records have been unsealed and of course I even referenced them earlier)

The AJC's Oct. 5 editorial "Come clean on lawsuit" resurrects (and misstates) old charges of conspiring to misuse government funds, charges the government reviewed seven years ago and declined to pursue. This has the devastating effect of casting public suspicion on two entities —- Grady Memorial Hospital and Emory University —- that are working together in an increasingly challenging environment to meet the health needs of the most vulnerable members of our society.

The editorial surprisingly calls on Emory and Grady to open the sealed settlement and court records in a case involving Dr. James Murtagh. For the record, Emory and Grady did not move to seal the record; Murtagh did. Emory had already supported unsealing the proceedings —- the complete, entire record —- as had Grady. We simply awaited the doctor and court's approval. Judge Wendy Shoob has since unsealed the record, which is now of course fully open to the public. The real victim in all of this is Grady, the largest public health hospital in the Southeast. Grady is struggling to survive while misinformation circulates that, unintentionally or intentionally, diverts attention from the real issues.

This statement is absurd on its face (and I should note never countered by the AJC). Murtaugh was paid a huge sum of money (1.6 million dollars) and then told to shut up. That is hush money. It is unlikely that he would be the one that would try and keep those records sealed. It was after all Emory and Grady that paid him not the other way around. They paid him and he was silenced. You do the math. Second, since he was silenced, making this bold face lie is easy since they know he is under order to remain quiet no matter what.

Finally, while he was paid the money both parties agreed to a total media blackout. Again, I may not be an attorney however it appears to me that Alexander just violated the terms of the very agreement he helped broker.

The case of Kent Alexander is much like everything about Emory and Grady. There are more questions than answers. Did Alexander receive his cushy position from King and Spaulding as a result of his favorable prosecution in the BNL case? Did he use his influence to squash the NIH and Walker investigations? Did he knowingly violate the policy of the Grady Trustees when he entered into an agreement with Dr. Jim Murtaugh? Did he try to intimidate Kevin Kuritzky?
Only the powers that be know the answers to these questions, however I do know that Grady Hospital may collapse. I know that there needs to be a huge infusion of cash in order for it to survive, and it appears to me that the same people that put it into this position continue to call the shots. I know that if I were a tax payer that was ultimately flipping the bill I would want all of the questions I raised answered, under oath, by Alexander himself, before even one more dime went into Grady Hospital.


For further information on Kent Alexander and this scandal in its entirety, please follow this link to listen to my buddy Snooper discuss this matter further.

UPDATE:


For the most part, if you find your way to one of the stories regarding the Grady mess, you will likely get lost in its many mazes. I actually don't believe that this is one of them. I believe that this story speaks for itself, and no matter your incoming knowledge you should be able to follow. If not let me know. That said, you should also know how Alexander fits into the overall scheme of things. 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.