New boss at Grady

Today, the board of troubled and cash-strapped Grady Memorial Hospital named a new head honcho. Michael A. Young, a 20-year hospital CEO out of New York and Pennsylvania, will oversee the Georgia’s largest public hospital, its most significant resource for indigent care, its most sophisticated trauma center, and its premier medical training facility — a facility that some experts say needs $370 million to start functioning correctly.

No pressure.

For nearly four years, Young was CEO of the Erie County Medical Center Corp. in upstate New York. Before that, he was the 16-year CEO of the three-hospital Lancaster General Hospital & Health System in Lancaster, Penn.

In a press release, Grady board chairman Pete Correll lauded Young’s track record of “improving patient care while boosting revenues and admissions.”

Correll said Young brings experience in turning around a financially troubled institution. Under Young’s tenure at Erie County Medical Center, the system went from losing $30 million a year to posting an operating profit of $17 million last year.

Let’s hope he can do the same for Grady.