Grady CEO Named to American Hospital Association Board

The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) is pleased to announce that Grady Health System President and Chief Executive Officer John Haupert has been appointed to the American Hospital Association (AHA) Board of Trustees. Haupert will begin serving a three-year term on the AHA Board on Jan. 1, 2018. The Board of Trustees is the highest policy-making body of the AHA and has ultimate authority for governance and management of its direction and finances.

“With the resurgence of Grady Memorial Hospital, Georgia’s largest safety net hospital, John Haupert has helped engineer one of the most successful comeback stories in the American hospital community,” said GHA President and CEO Earl Rogers. “In less than six years, John has done more than just stabilize Grady financially, he has transformed the institution’s internal culture and public image. With his track record of leadership success, John is an ideal selection to help lead at the national level during these challenging times in health care.”

Haupert was selected to lead Grady in October 2011 and was charged with changing the course of an institution plagued by continued leadership turnover, a huge indigent/uninsured payer mix and a loss of $27 million in 2011. In fact, in 2007, the hospital was hemorrhaging so much money, it was on the brink of closure.

Thanks to a series of changes that have strengthened revenue cycle management, moved the hospital to electronic medical records and helped enroll eligible residents for Medicaid, the hospital has been able to direct additional resources toward enhancing its ability to meet the health care needs of its community. Today, Grady is attracting more patients with commercial health insurance, adding more essential community services and renovating many areas of the campus that desperately needed modernization.

In July, Grady announced plans to construct a seven-story advanced surgical services center across the street from the hospital while expanding and modernizing the system’s Ponce de Leon Center, which treats more than 6,000 people a year with HIV and AIDS. That is in addition to the system’s existing Level 1 Marcus Trauma Center, its leading edge Burn Center (one of only two in the state) and the Marcus Neuroscience and Stroke Center, which is the first of its kind in the region and treats patients from throughout the Southeast and beyond.

“John’s leadership success is fueled by a passion to ensure that every patient, regardless of background or economic status, has access to affordable, high-quality health care services,” said Rogers. “Every decision that he makes in the Board room is driven by what’s best for the patient.”

In 2015, Haupert, who also serves on the GHA Board of Trustees, was selected by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to serve as a board member of the Georgia Department of Public Health — an organization crucial to safeguarding health and wellness in the state. Prior to joining Grady, he served as the executive vice president and chief operating officer at another well-known safety net hospital, the Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas, Texas. At Parkland, Haupert led a team to design, construct and activate a $1.27 billion replacement campus that featured an 862-bed hospital, outpatient specialty clinic towers and an administrative tower.