NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It was a day of celebration Wednesday at Nashville General Hospital and Meharry Medical College as the two entities signed a joint agreement that again solidifies their working relationship.
It's a relationship that, earlier this year, NewsChannel 5 Investigates first revealed had been severely strained by the previous hospital leadership.
But now that the hospital has someone new in charge, both sides are calling it "a new day."
It took less than two minutes for the head of Meharry Medical College and the acting CEO of Nashville General Hospital to sign the new professional services agreement or PSA.
But getting to this point took more than two and a half years.
"It is a big deal, but more than a big deal, it's a really important thing for both of our organizations," Dr. James Hildreth, the President and CEO of Meharry Medical College, told NewsChannel 5 Investigates as he and his counterpart at Nashville General Hospital, Interim CEO Dr. Veronica Elders, sat down with us ahead of the PSA signing.
They both spoke of how the signing represents more than just a new contract between their two entities.
Dr. Elders suggested, "It's just a new day at Nashville General altogether and we're excited about that."
The last time with spoke with Dr. Hildreth was back in February, when he and the then-CEO of Nashville General, Dr. Joseph Webb, were communicating only through tersely worded letters, and Hildreth told us he felt the city's safety net hospital had turned its back on the medical school.
Hildreth said during that February interview of the relationship between Meharry and Nashville General at the time, "If commitments are not being honored, and if transparency is not there, it makes it a very challenging situation."
The PSA spells out responsibilities, expectations, and payments between the hospital and medical college. The previous agreement expired two and a half years ago. Dr. Hildreth told us Nashville General refused to sign a new one, while Dr. Webb claimed otherwise at a hospital board meeting.
Webb insisted to the Nashville Hospital Authority in January, "We’ve (Webb and Hildreth) had numerous meetings discussing opportunities to move forward, and we are still having those meetings."
We asked Dr. Hildreth shortly after that, "Dr. Webb says negotiations have been ongoing and regular meetings?"
Hildreth replied, "Well, I really can’t. I don’t wanna comment on that. I don’t have any animosity towards Dr. Webb."
We responded, "But the look on your face there when I asked you that question was like, 'No, that’s not right?'"
But after Webb's hasty departure from the job in March after an internal audit revealed fraud and waste by hospital leadership, in part exposed by our reporting, Elders was named as Webb's interim replacement.
"We (Nashville General and Meharry) need each other to make the city healthier," she told us.
She also said she immediately got to work, hammering out the PSA with her counterpart at Meharry and working to repair the broken relationship.
"Sometimes you just got to, you know, change up things," Elders said while chuckling and then reaching out to tap Hildreth's arm.
Hildreth then shared, "The plain and simple truth is that changing the CEO makes all the difference."
The partnership between Meharry and Nashville General goes back nearly 30 years, when the city closed its own hospital and moved into Meharry's existing facility, making the building both the city's safety net hospital and teaching hospital for Meharry's students and residents.
"As a medical college, we cannot train future physicians without a hospital partner," Hildreth stated, adding that the new agreement restores many opportunities that Meharry students had lost in recent years and creates new ones.
"So Meharry will now be part of the hiring process, and you weren't before?" we asked him.
"That's correct," he replied.
"And that makes a difference?" we continued.
"Oh, absolutely," Hildreth said.
And the new agreement and improved relations between the two entities got high praise last week from the Nashville Hospital Authority board as it approved the new PSA with one member declaring, "It’s a great thing to celebrate."
And the praise continued from Mayor Freddie O'Connell as that PSA was signed.
"I think this is an incredibly important step forward," O'Connell stated.
It may have taken a while to get to this point, but those who made it happen said it's good to be here now.
Summing it up, Elders said, "Yeah, we both win and everybody, Nashville wins."
Some have expressed concerns about the age and condition of the current hospital.
But Mayor O'Connell had said he was not going to even consider building a new hospital until the two sides were working together again.
After Wednesday's signing, the mayor told us that he'd just talked with both Dr. Hildreth and Dr. Elders about moving forward with plans and starting to discuss what a new hospital might look like and where it might be.
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