Atlanta’s financially strapped Grady Health System, parent company to 953-bed Grady Memorial Hospital in Southeast Atlanta, has announced it expects to lay off 100 nonmedical employees over the coming weeks.
“We have no idea right now who (will be cut) or when, but it won’t be medical staff,” said Grady spokeswoman Denise Simpson. “Our physicians are from Morehouse and Emory (medical schools), so they won’t be impacted, and (the layoffs) won’t target nurses.”
The forthcoming reductions come on the heels of staff cuts in March, which offered early retirement packages to 562 employees. Roughly 400 accepted the offer, but the reductions weren’t sufficient to allow Grady to meet its payroll for the remainder of the year, as well as other financial obligations, according to Simpson. Grady Memorial currently owes vendors, as well as Morehouse and Emory, millions of dollars.
Simpson said the staff reductions will be made by eliminating jobs throughout most of the healthcare system, which along with the hospital includes nine neighborhood health centers and a health and rehabilitation center. Grady's Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital will not face cuts because of a management agreement with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. -- by Shawn Rhea