I today introduced two pieces of legislation addressing problems at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Senate Resolution 722 creates a Grady Oversight Committee. First proposed in 1999 by then Senator David Scott, legislative oversight has been persistently opposed by those who run Grady. Of course, their resistance to legislative oversight has not stopped them from crying the same old lament of legislative neglect whenever the coffers run dry.

The language of the resolution is drawn from legislation creating MARTOC, the highly successful legislative overview committee for MARTA. It will allow the General Assembly to continuously monitor Grady and help make sure that public funds are properly spent.

Senate Bill 353, the Public Hospital Integrity Act, prevents those with a financial tie to either Grady or a major vendor of Grady from serving in a governing capacity for the hospital. This bill will help make sure that Grady’s board gives its loyalty to Grady as an institution and not to those who do business with Grady. Senator David Adelman, Vicent Fort and Kasim Reed are among the Democrats who cosponsored the bill.

As important as they are, governance reform and legislative oversight are just the beginning. I will shortly be unveiling additional proposals for Grady concerning funding, staffing and competitiveness issues. I will keep you posted.

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