20-Year Hospital CEO Michael Young Named Grady CEO
Head of Erie County Medical in Upstate New York Brings 20-Year Track Record of Reducing ER Delays and Improving Trauma While Boosting Revenues and Admissions

Michael A. Young

(ATLANTA) —The Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation today named 20-year hospital CEO Michael A. Young as Grady Health System’s new chief executive officer.

He is slated to take his post in the next 60 days.

For nearly four years, Young, 52, has led Erie County Medical Center Corp. (ECMC) in upstate New York, which encompasses a 550-bed regional trauma center and 742 skilled nursing beds. ECMC is affiliated with the University of Buffalo.

Prior to that, Young served for 16 years as president and CEO of the three-hospital, 530-bed Lancaster General Hospital & Health System in Lancaster, Penn. Young also served for eight years as vice president of operations for Shadyside Hospital, a 484-bed hospital associated with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania.

“This is a great day in Grady’s history, a day when we can stop looking backward and start looking forward,” said GMHC board chairman Pete Correll. “Grady has attracted a world-class leader with a nearly 30-year track record -- 20 of them as CEO -- for improving patient care while boosting revenues and admissions. I am proud that we had such a strong roster of candidates, and pleased that we can now direct our efforts at making Grady strong again.”

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. Young attributes his unique focus on the patient as the center of the delivery model to ECMC’s clinical and financial success. Specifically, this focus has resulted in reduced emergency-room waits, improved trauma outcomes and boosted admissions.

In his career as CEO of both institutions, Lancaster General was regularly named a national “Top 100” hospital, and ECMC received national and statewide recognition for trauma care survival rates (z-scores) and emergency cardiac care “door-to-balloon” times, and also received the American Heart Association Gold Award for exceeding “Get with the Guidelines” goals for the past two consecutive years.

Young said he was attracted to the position because of Grady’s reputation as a premier teaching hospital and because of its importance to Atlanta and Georgia.

“Grady is beloved throughout this country for training some of the best doctors in America, and I’m honored to lead this turnaround,” Young said. “It’s clear how much Grady means to this community and this state, and I look forward to working side-by-side with Grady’s doctors and staff – and the whole community – to provide the very best quality of care to our patients.”

Young holds both a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Pittsburgh, and has completed additional professional training at the Harvard Business School. He has been a fellow at the American College of Healthcare Executives since 1993.

Young has also been an active citizen in the community, and has served as president of the Lancaster Alliance, a business group that includes 15 of the largest employers in Lancaster County, Penn.; treasurer of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry; and a member of the following boards: YMCA, YWCA, Schreiber Pediatrics (Easter Seals), James Street Improvement District (President), United Cerebral Palsy, Boy Scouts of America, the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, the Western New York American Heart Association and the Western New York Hospital Association.

Young and his wife of 26 years, Karen, have two sons, Jonathan, 24, and Christopher, 21.

Young’s resume is attached.