ATLANTA — Big changes have taken place at Grady Memorial Hospital, according to the health center's CEO.
Channel 2 Action News anchor Jovita Moore spent time with Grady's CEO, Mike Young, and discovered dramatic improvements have occurred at the financially strapped hospital since he took over 18 months ago.
WATCH Jovita Moore's interview with Grady CEO
Young told Channel 2's Moore that the hospital made money last year, has much needed new equipment and the quality of its health care has improved under his leadership.
Young shared some figures from the year 2009: $41 million in revenue; $304 million in private donations; $300 million provided in free care; ER wait time was cut in half; length of stay for patients has been cut from 8 days to 6; 600 new beds installed; 50,000 new patients and 20 new ambulances.
"I think people are just beginning to understand what Grady is and that's what's so exciting," Young said.
Big changes this year will include the addition of the Marcus Stroke Center which opens next week. A new cardiac center opens in December.
Changes at Grady have come at a cost, however, including job cuts in 2009 and decreased overtime opportunities, said Young.
Georgia Hospital Association, a nonprofit trade association made up of hospitals around the state, provided this statement to Channel 2's Moore: "While hospital leadership has been forced to make some difficult financial and operational decisions, the state's largest safety net hospital is getting stronger at a time when Georgia residents needs the hospital more than ever."
Grady opened in 1892 and was created by and named for Henry W. Grady, editor of the "Atlanta Constitution." He worried about the lack of quality health care for Atlanta's poor.
Today, Grady maintains its commitment to the health care needs of Fulton and DeKalb counties underserved populations, while also offering medical services for all segments of metro Atlanta.
Grady is known for its trauma and emergency services and is an internationally recognized teaching hospital staffed exclusively by doctors from Emory University and Morehouse schools of medicine.
WSBTV
