Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospital

Emory University School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine provide all the physicians at Grady Memorial Hospital. One of the largest public hospitals in the Southeast, Grady is an internationally recognized teaching hospital with a historic commitment to the health needs of the most vulnerable.

Grady is able to provide the vast quantity of excellent care it does because of the hospital's longstanding relationships with Emory University School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine, providers of all physician care at Grady.Emory and Morehouse physicians working at Grady, many of them nationally known, have nearly 850,000 outpatient visits each year and more than 185,000 inpatient days each year, including some of the most complex cases seen anywhere in Georgia.
"Grady doctor" means Emory or Morehouse doctor. All doctors at Grady are faculty or residents from Emory University School of Medicine or Morehouse School of Medicine. More than 600 Emory medical school faculty, almost one-third of all faculty members at Emory, spend all or part of their time at Grady. This represents the full-time equivalent of approximately 320 Emory physicians. In addition, 374 Emory residents and fellows -- young physicians continuing their training in medical specialties -- also provide vast amounts of patient care at Grady under the supervision of the faculty. Together, these Emory physicians provide close to 85 percent of all physician patient care delivered at Grady.
As Grady faces mounting financial pressures in today's healthcare environment, the medical schools continue to be the hospital's best bargain. Looking at the 2006 budget (the last year for which full figures are available), Grady's total budget was $703 million. Grady's budget allocated to Emory University School of Medicine was $63,214,510.16. Because state and federal agencies directly reimbursed Grady for $37.7 million of that $63.2 million, the unreimbursed cost to Grady for all Emory physicians and services is 3.6 percent of the hospital's entire budget. The bargain is actually even better, since this does not take into account the additional income to Grady in revenues from patients, grants, and other sources, all made possible by the presence of Emory University School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine.
Graduate medical education by Emory and Morehouse continues to be a major asset for Grady -- and the biggest bargain of all. The 374 medical residents provided to Grady by Emory (and additional residents provided by Morehouse) are indispensable for the outstanding care of the patients seen at Grady. These physicians' salaries and fringe benefits cost Grady nothing: they are reimbursed directly to Grady by federal and state programs. Without the medical schools, this reimbursement would simply vanish, along with more than 400 of these young physicians and the revenues Grady receives from hospital services connected to the care they help provide.
Emory (and Morehouse) provide more doctors to Grady than is covered by the Grady budget. Emory is partially reimbursed by Grady for about half the Emory FTE physicians working at Grady and the School of Medicine pays for the rest. The medical school also supplements physician salaries from its own budgets, allowing Grady to have many highly specialized physicians at a fraction of the cost the hospital otherwise would have to pay to compete with the city's private hospitals.
Emory and Morehouse medical school physicians bring money into Grady through patient care. All patients seen at Grady are treated by Emory or Morehouse physicians. Slightly more than half the patients seen at Grady have some kind of insurance, which translates into money for hospital services.
Last year, the Emory School of Medicine brought $143 million in additional funds to Grady Health system, including $24.7 million in patient care for which Emory doctors received no payment, $38 million of money from Emory in support of salaries and programs at Grady, $8 million in research funds in support of improved patient care at Grady, and $72.3 million in state and federal grants for patient care.
Since its founding, Grady Memorial Hospital has been a vital part of Emory University School of Medicine's commitment to Atlanta and Georgia. Physicians in the Atlanta Medical College, the precursor of Emory's medical school, were the earliest physicians providing care at Grady when it was founded in 1892, and this connection -- and commitment -- has continued unabated unto the present. Emory and Morehouse School of Medicine assist the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority and the Grady Health System (GHS) in providing outstanding health care to residents from Fulton and DeKalb counties and, increasingly, throughout Georgia. For the medical schools, Grady also serves as an excellent resource for training the next generation of physicians and improving the health of all Georgians. One of every four physicians in Georgia first began practicing medicine as a resident at Grady. (The medical schools pay all expenses related to the medical students being at Emory.)