Vote Passes, Grady To Privatize

The board of trustees of Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital voted this evening to establish a nonprofit governing board.

The step is intended to attract 300 million dollars in funding from the city's business, philanthropic and government communities as well as from the state.

Dozens of activists, doctors, clergy, lawmakers and citizens packed an auditorium across from Grady and demanded to be heard before the board made its decision. Several gave impassioned comments, many tinged with accusations of racism.

Three people were arrested Monday as protesters waited outside a meeting room at Grady, while the hospital's board met in executive session.

State Senator Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) and community activist Derrick Boazman were briefly detained by police as protests became heated. One other person, identified as Fort's niece, was also arrested by officers.

Both men were handcuffed and briefly taken away from the scene. Fort was thrown against a wall and was screaming loudly as he was led away by police officers.

Boazman and Fort's efforts to get into the smaller conference room to voice their opposition to a controversial privatization proposal sparked the confrontation with security officers.

"We came for a public meeting," Boazman said, outside the hospital after he was released by officers. "And we're being locked up and knocked around as if we're some third-rate group of citizens who just happened to be out of control. This is unprecedented."

Fort was also incensed at his treatment.

"They threw one woman down, put a baton around her neck, cuffed her and took her out -- my niece," Fort said. "Then two other people -- me and Boazman -- they cuffed, and let us go. So there's one person in jail now."

The public portion of the meeting, originally scheduled for 3:30 p.m., was eventually moved from the board's chambers to a larger auditorium at the hospital, where there was room for everyone -- those who support and those who oppose the privatization of the hospital.

There are a number of conditions that the board is placing on the state and Fulton and DeKalb counties before they will agree to move forward on the creation of a non-profit corporation.

The protesters inside the meeting chanted "Let the people speak," when it was clear the ten members of the board were going to vote without one word of discussion on the measure -- even among themselves.

The board then agreed to hear from all of the protesters before voting.

Fort told the board members that he was skeptical about the proposal.

"Y'all ought to be ready to stay here all night," Fort said when board members asked him to conclude his speech. "The fight ain't over. If some of us have to go to jail, so be it."

The plan would put in place a non-profit corporation to run Grady from now on. The plan also calls for raising $500 million in new public and private funds. Under the plan, the board will want the House speaker, the lieutenant governor, and the governor to agree to come up with $30 million of that $500 million figure, or the board said they will rescind the vote, and not go with the plan.

The board is also calling on the Fulton and DeKalb county commissions to guarantee something like $200 million in new loans for Grady.

Founded in 1892, Grady has struggled financially for years. But now it has reached a crisis because of rising health care costs, dwindling government aid and a lack of paying customers. That situation is not uncommon among urban hospitals like Grady that primarily serve the needy.

In addition to losing money on patient care, Grady needs an estimated 300 million to repair and modernize its buildings and acquire new equipment such as CT scanners and an up-to-date computer system.

Under the resolution adopted Monday night by the Fulton-Dekalb Hospital Authority -- Grady's current 10-member board -- the Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation would be created as a 501(c)(3) and composed of 17 members, four of whom would be members of the current board.

The nonprofit board would have a lease agreement with the current board. Several conditions of the proposal hinge on that agreement, including: