GradyHealth history

Did You Know? The first nursing school in Georgia, the Grady Hospital Training School for Nurses, was chartered on March 25th, 1898.

As the hospital grew after 1900, and Jim Crow took hold, they divided blacks and whites further beyond just wards by creating/providing separate hospital structures.

Did You Know? Grady purchased its first motorized ambulance from the White Motor Company in 1911.

In May 1915, the Atlanta Medical College became the Emory University School of Medicine.

In 1921, a Grady physician performed the first open-heart surgery in Georgia.

In 1923 the world’s first and largest comprehensive cancer center, the Steiner Clinic, was established.

In the 1940’s Grady received national recognition when Doctor Eugene Stead helped bring a cardiac catheterization lab to Grady, one of only three such labs in the world at that time.

Many could still remember when the new hospital was built in 1958.

In September 1964, the two nursing programs were integrated under Grady Hospital School of Nursing.

In 1978, a medical school was established at Morehouse College to assume up to half of the responsibility for patient care, medical education, and clinical research at Grady.

Still, the Grady Hospital School of Nursing made an impact in the nursing profession: before closing its doors in 1982, it had graduated over 4,000 nurses.

In 1983, an ambitious renovation project created a sixteen-story building that continues to be the core of the current hospital.

In the early 1990’s, Grady embarked on a $298 million renovation across the entire hospital.

That figure was about 8 percent of the hospital’s $764 million operating budget. (By comparison, the 1995 allocation from the two counties amounted to 25 percent of Grady’s operating budget.)

The following excerpt, dealing with Grady’s near collapse in 2008, is adapted from the final chapter of the book.

In 2013 they provided just over $60 million toward Grady’s operations.

Correll, who will leave Grady’s board in 2016, said he hopes to build a reserve fund that could be used in the event of an economic downturn or unexpected expenses in future years.

In 2017, Grady Health System provided more than $300 million in indigent and charity care (including non-reimbursed dollars).