A panel of Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine and Grady Memorial Hospital experts spoke of how Grady’s strong racial ties had a unique impact on their lives and the Atlanta community at an evening discussion Tuesday.

The event was titled “Three Part Harmony: Listening to the Voices of Emory, Morehouse and Grady” and was presented as part of the Transforming Community Project, an ongoing initiative to explore Emory’s history with race relations.

Former Grady doctor Jordan Messler, who now works at a hospital in Clearwater, Fla., began the panel by talking about Grady’s history, noting its long history with Atlanta’s black community. Until 1892, when Grady began accepting black patients, options were severely limited for black Atlantans.

“If you were black and in Atlanta, you couldn’t get to a hospital,” Messler said.

Today, it continues to treat many of Atlanta’s disenfranchised residents, the vast majority of which are black or Hispanic and have no health insurance.

Panelist James McCoy, professor of clinical surgery at Morehouse, expanded upon the strong ties binding Emory, Morehouse and Grady together. McCoy said Morehouse has been training its residents at Grady since the founding of Morehouse’s medical school.

Grady provides experience for Morehouse and Emory School of Medicine residents in a hospital that treats more trauma victims than any other hospital in the state. The two medical schools, in return, staff the hospital with faculty members.

“Grady has been able to survive only because of its intimate relationship with Emory,” McCoy said.

Chief of Staff for the Grady Health System Leon L. Haley said the racial disparities in American health care continue to widen. He noted that the top three causes of death — heart disease, cancer and stroke — are the same for both whites and blacks, but these diseases are more common in black Americans.

Many of the panelists had complex ties to Morehouse, Grady and Emory. Nadine Kaslow, for instance, is a professor at the Emory School of Medicine, chief psychologist of the Grady Health System and special assistant to the provost at Emory.

Kaslow talked of the rich cultural experiences she gleaned largely from the black patients at Grady. Much to her frustration, patients participating in her research studies often attributed the lessening of symptoms to God, Jesus, praying or reading the Bible.

“I had to learn how to integrate religion and spirituality in my practice,” she said.

For Flavia Mercado, medical director for the Department of Multicultural Affairs at Grady, working at the hospital has transformed both her personal and public identities. She was raised by Puerto Rican parents but rarely spoke of her heritage before working at Grady.

“[At Grady] I recognized I was a Latina,” she said. “I became the doctor, the social worker, the pediatrician, all kinds of things.”

When discussing the growing number of Hispanics utilizing Grady, Mercado said, “Over 60 percent of women giving birth at Grady are Hispanic. ... Grady is transforming its culture and this [panel] is part of it.”

The evening concluded with a question-and-answer session. Associate Professor of Medicine Neil Shulman noted the growing socioeconomic gap in the health care arena.

“Cafeteria workers once got the same medical benefits as professors did at Emory,” Shulman asserted. “That’s no longer the case.”

Unfortunately, Kaslow said, the situation may get worse for poor families without medical insurance if Grady shuts down.

A member from the audience illustrated Grady’s frustration over their financial problems.

“The counties haven’t paid what they should, the city hasn’t paid what it should and the management gets blamed,” she said.

Kaslow expressed her concerns for Grady’s future.

“I don’t think we can get this three-part harmony without the county and without the state,” she said.

Haley noted, “This city is not prepared for treating the million patients that come to Grady every year.”

— Contact Matt Tamul