If Grady Hospital Closes Where Will the Babies be Born

Socio-economic and political factors have had a synergistic impact on the discontinuation of the operations of many inner city hospitals resulting in diminishing health care services for both the rich and the poor. Often there is only an analysis of the financial strains the facility is experiencing. However, the skills and services that are represented by the staff are often not expressed in terms of value added processes.

Reproductive health services at Grady go largely overlooked. When one thinks about trauma, Grady is one of the first hospitals considered by most doctors, law enforcement personnel and firefighters. However, there is not very much analyses conducted on reproductive health care provided by the institution.

Premature babies as tiny as two pounds have a better chance of surviving at Grady than almost anywhere else in the country, even though 15% of the 4,200 deliveries at Grady are low-birthweight babies. Grady's Project Prevent has saved the state and federal government about $50 million by decreasing the number of drug-addicted babies and length of stay in neonatal intensive care.

If there were no Grady hospital, where would high risk deliveries in the metro Atlanta area be conducted? How many medical school graduates specializing in obstetrics and gynecology seek to complete their residencies? How much would the cost of maternal health care and new infant care increase for the state of Georgia?