Court Issues Restraining Order against Grady
A Fulton County Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday against the Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation [GMHC] to prevent it from closing the Grady Health System Outpatient Dialysis Clinic.
“Based on the Plaintiffs’ presentation by means of witnesses and argument in support therefore, and upon a showing of emergency circumstances and the likelihood that the Plaintiffs will suffer irrevocable injury unless this court intervenes, this Court finds that the requirements for an immediate temporary restraining order have been met, and on such grounds hereby grant Plaintiffs’ request for an immediate temporary restraining order,” Judge Ural D. Glanville wrote.
The order requires Grady to do the following:
- The GMHC must stop inducing patients currently receiving dialysis treatment at Grady to seek treatment elsewhere, including urging patients to move to other states, move to other countries, or to seek dialysis treatment in emergency rooms “until such time as the [GMHC] presents a suitable alternative treatment plan that this Court approves subject to hearing and considering the positions of concerned parties with respect [to] the proposed alternative treatment plan.”
- The GMHC cannot take any steps to close or limit existing clinic operations until an alternative plan is approved.
- The GMHC must notify, in writing, all clinic patients of their right to continue using the dialysis clinic services and any details about potential court hearings in which the court could discuss alternative treatment plans.
Grady had planned to close the dialysis clinic on Sept. 20 after entering into a two-year contract with Fresenius Medical Care on Monday to provide outpatient dialysis services for many of the clinic’s 96 patients.
About half of the clinic patients are undocumented, uninsured immigrants who would otherwise have a hard time obtaining private insurance or some government plan like Medicaid to continue their treatment in private Fresenius clinics.
Grady officials had worked with these patients to urge them to move to a state that provides emergency Medicaid services for undocumented immigrants (Georgia does not), return to their country of origin, or otherwise try to receive dialysis care through an emergency room.
Patient advocates like Grady Advocates for Responsible Care and the Grady Coalition argued closing the clinic could put patients’ lives in jeopardy. Atlanta attorney Lindsay R.M. Jones successfully argued on behalf of the Plaintiffs in court Wednesday.