Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta — the largest public hospital in the South and a major training ground for medical students from both Emory and Morehouse College — could be forced to close if officials fail to find funding to pay off its $100 million debt.

During the summer, advocates for Grady — including doctors, medical students and Atlanta locals — have stressed the need to keep the hospital open, especially for low-income patients in the Atlanta area.

According to an editorial in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution written by Emory’s School of Medicine Dean Thomas Lawley and his counterpart at Morehouse, Eve Higginbotham, both schools supply the hospital with doctors from their student base and faculty, and they do so under contract with the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, which runs Grady.

“These physicians are truly dedicated providers, who wish to continue to provide compassionate, quality care, but need the institution to remain financially stable and keep its doors open,” they wrote.

Lawley and Higginbotham wrote that the schools are jointly owed $54 million by the hospital, $45 million of which is owed just to Emory, according to a Sept. 1 article in the AJC.

Emory and Morehouse usually pay their doctors and wait to be reimbursed by Grady, but recently the hospital has stalled in its payments.

“The only reason Grady is open today is that both institutions have not aggressively pursued payment for services, at a great fiscal cost to our respective schools,” the deans wrote.

According to AJC reports, Emory faced some criticism after a report commissioned by Grady found that Emory doctors “inadequately” document their hours at the hospital. The report suggested doctors record their time more often, but a separate report commissioned by Emory in 2005 found the current system to be commonplace for teaching hospitals.

Emory’s Vice President for Communications, Ron Sauder, denied the accusation and stressed that Emory and Morehouse were both found to be in compliance with their contract with the hospital.

Sauder noted that Grady was found to be violating it through its delayed payments.

In another AJC editorial, Elaine Boyer and Lynne Riley, commissioners from Fulton and DeKalb counties, stress that Grady must change its management before it gets money.

“There must be a surrender of power,” they wrote. “Grady’s entire board must submit its resignation and ask for a total reorganization as suggested by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

“We must look at Grady as if it were an almost $1 billion business. It has to be run like a business, managed like a business and resurrected with a business plan if it is to survive,” they wrote.

Sauder said, “Emory is working to the best of its ability to help Grady find a new basis for being viable.” He added that the University supports the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s recommendation.

College junior Evan Kananack teamed up with School of Medicine Professor and Grady doctor Neil Shulman for a documentary to raise awareness on Grady’s situation.

Kananack and Shulman will screen the documentary, “Save Grady,” on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in White Hall 208.

—Contact Salvador Rizzo at srizzo@emorywheel.com