First, here are excerpts from the two stories,
Rather than await a court order, Emory and Grady ought to open the records for public inspection immediately. Emory, which supplies most of the attending physicians and residents-in-training at Grady, has already indicated it is willing for the full file to be unsealed if Murtagh, who no longer is employed by Emory, agrees.
Grady, which turned down Shafer's request for the records several weeks ago, should follow suit. If Grady is concerned that patient records might become public as a result, it can ask that those specific records be exempted or redacted.
Murtagh apparently sued Emory and Grady several times in 2000, alleging, among other things, that Emory broke a deal to name him chief of the pulmonary department. He also alleged that Emory and Grady conspired to defraud Medicare and Medicaid in how the two government health insurance programs compensated Grady and the medical school doctors for patient care at thehospital. Murtagh said he was cooperating with federal investigators, but no apparent federal action was taken against Grady or the medical school.
In response, Kent Alexander and Tim Jefferson, both legal counsels for Grady and Emory, wrote thisThe AJC's Oct. 5 editorial "Come clean on lawsuit" resurrects (and misstates) old charges of conspiring to misuse government funds, charges the government reviewed seven years ago and declined to pursue. This has the devastating effect of casting public suspicion on two entities -- Grady Memorial Hospital and Emory University -- that are working together in an increasingly challenging environment to meet the health needs of the most vulnerable members of our society.
The editorial surprisingly calls on Emory and Grady to open the sealed settlement and court records in a case involving Dr. James Murtagh. For the record, Emory and Grady did not move to seal the record; Murtagh did. Emory had already supported unsealing the proceedings -- the complete, entire record -- as had Grady. We simply awaited the doctor and court's approval.Judge Wendy Shoob has since unsealed the record, which is now of course fully open to the public. The real victim in all of this is Grady, the largest public health hospital in the Southeast. Grady is struggling to survive while misinformation circulates that, unintentionally or intentionally, diverts attention from the real issues.
(Unfortunately, since the link is the first part of the article I can't copy that. Go to my initial link and try and link to the link and watch yourself go to a blank page. I know try saying that five times, and you are very confused and you don't see the point. The point is that there is a link that goes to nothing and just accept that for now)
The second article is more clear...
Friday, October 19, 2007
Emory
University: Unraveling Sealed Records
On
October 5th, the AJC wrote this editorial,
Rather than await a court order, Emory and Grady ought to open the records
for public inspection immediately. Emory, which supplies most of the attending
physicians and residents-in-training at Grady, has already indicated it is
willing for the full file to be unsealed if Murtagh, who no longer is employed
by Emory, agrees.
Grady, which turned down Shafer's request for the records several weeks ago, should follow suit. If Grady is concerned that patient records might become public as a result, it can ask that those specific records be exempted or redacted.Murtagh apparently sued Emory and Grady several times in 2000, alleging, among other things, that Emory broke a deal to name him chief of the pulmonary department. He also alleged that Emory and Grady conspired to defraud Medicare and Medicaid in how the two government health insurance programs compensated Grady and the medical school doctors for patient care at the hospital. Murtagh said he was cooperating with federal investigators, but no apparent federal action was taken against Grady or the medical school.
In response, Kent Alexander and Tim Jefferson, both legal counsels for Grady and Emory, wrote this
The AJC's Oct. 5 editorial "Come clean on lawsuit" resurrects (and misstates) old charges of conspiring to misuse government funds, charges the government reviewed seven years ago and declined to pursue. This has the devastating effect of casting public suspicion on two entities -- Grady Memorial Hospital and Emory University -- that are working together in an increasingly challenging environment to meet the health needs of the most vulnerable members of our society.The editorial surprisingly calls on Emory and Grady to open the sealed settlement and court records in a case involving Dr. James Murtagh.
For the record, Emory and Grady did not move to seal the record; Murtagh did. Emory had already supported unsealing the proceedings -- the complete, entire record -- as had Grady. We simply awaited the doctor and court's approval.Judge Wendy Shoob has since unsealed the record, which is now of course fully open to the public. The real victim in all of this is Grady, the largest public health hospital in the Southeast. Grady is struggling to survive while misinformation circulates that, unintentionally or intentionally, diverts attention from the real issues.
These articles are of course identical and what we bloggers call cross posting. The important part is that every link I provided leads to nowhere (except those that lead to Amazon.com products which I very much encourage you to link to and buy no explanation needed there). Now, and most of my friends will agree with this, I may just have been a total idiot and provided the wrong link. Or, the link I provided was removed after these pieces were published.
Now, the article that I firmly believe once existed in the AJC website was actually an editorial that urged that Grady and Emory unseal the records of the settlement between them and Dr. Jim Murtaugh. Now, this Emory can't hide. I have seen the settlement. Murtaugh was paid 1.6 million dollars and then both parties were told to shut up entirely including the media. In fact, in the settlement, if either party even gets subpoenad, they must first appear before the judge so that the other party has a chance to quash the subpoena. Now, where I come from, when you are paid a lot of money and told to be quiet, that is called hush money.
The reason this is important is because the response, which no longer exists, claimed that it was Murtaugh, not Emory and Grady, that insisted that the records remain sealed. Now, I will again make the same point that I made in the piece that I have linked. It is patently ridiculous to say that the one being hushed is the one that insists on keeping everything quiet. Second, since Emory knows that Murtaugh must remain silent, since they paid to silence him, he is an easy target. Finally, this non lawyer, believes that by simply speaking out Emory and Grady (represented by their dual counselors Tim Jefferson and Kent Alexander) have each violated the very agreement they helped craft.
As you can see, this is, if true, is quite damaging to the two entitities. Thus, they have every reason to get rid of the evidence.
I know what many are thinking now. Michael, you have delusions of grandeur. Emory doesn't care what some nothing blogger says about them. Au contraire. According to my stat counter, the Emory University faculty IP, 170.140.62.42 (one I now know will never be used again to check my site) is my biggest fan. I know this because someone on that IP address visits my site at least once a day and then it gets up to ten hits in a day whenever a story related to them gets published. (Yes, I know big brother, but it is great when you are the big brother.)
Now, I will also say that I firmly believe that the powers that be will very possibly reverse coure again, and suddenly, the story will be back up on the site and the page will be back up. That is why I hope people check this out now and see for themselves before courses are reversed. In fact, I predicted part of the current course in a previous piece.
So, what does all of this mean? It may mean nothing, but why doesn't the audience indulge my own delusions of grandeur and allow me to state what I believe happened. I believe that Grady and Emory tried to do damage control to an ever growing situation with what can only be described as an absurd response to an editorial in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The powers that be at Emory read my nothing blog and realized that if my nothing blog every became something, their unbelievable fraud, arrogance, and corruption would be available for everyone. Thus, the powers that be needed to remove all evidence that linked my assertion to them. It was easy since the AJC has a plethora of Emory alum and thus plenty of influence. The article was removed however in their own carelessness they forgot that they themselves linked to the same article from their own site. When I published the second piece, I just linked, they realized their second error and removed that as well. Thus, they have made it look as though I am an incompetent computer novice that can't link straight and thus can't be taken serious.
In other words, if I am right, then in the words of Daniel Caffee (that's A Few Good Men for all you movie novices)
you mean they can make an entire flight disappear
Yes, that's right, and they will to hide their own malfeasance, unless you stop them. Please link to the powers that be and ask him yourself why these pages are missing. Finally, if I am right, then we have incontrovertable evidence that the AJC isn't just tacitly involved in the corruption but frankly an active participant. If you believe me, please go here and ask the AJC where this article went.
UPDATE:
I would like to welcome the administrators at Emory University. According, the my stat counter the aforementioned IP address just visited at 9:16:51 (Central Time, give or take a tenth of a second) I also fully expect that at least their own site, Emory Woodruff Health Sciences Center, they will fix the slight error. Currently, as I said, the site that has been removed pops up for a split second and then disappears. Please follow this google search. Pick the top search, Emory WHSC Statements mislabel role, and you will see what I mean. For now at least. Please leave comments letting me know if your search yielded the same results. If they did, please ask the powers that be why the web page was removed.
UPDATE: Well, the page has been permanently removed or somehow Emory got Google to remove the link. Either way, the page has now disappeared. If you are reading this story too late, you will just have to take my word for it. If you don't believe me, so be it, it is probably the intention of the powers at Emory. Just keep in mind that while they can remove a page from a web site, they cannot remove the entire fiasco. Please read below for the summary of the entire fiasco.
UPDATE:
I realize that if the first exposure to this story comes somewhere in the middle, you may get very confused. Thus, if you this is the first story related to Grady that you are reading, you should be confused. As such, I have put together a summary of the entire fiasco that tries to put all of its moving parts together in one piece. Please read it for guidance. Also, please check out the recommendations that I and my colleagues have put together for fixing Grady Hospital.
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