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Is Erlanger the worst-run hospital around?

2,067 views · Published 18 June 2013 · 1:14 · Indexed 29 October 2026

Channel: chattanooga times free press · 2013 · News & Politics

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First of all, Health care costs may have surged across the nation, but for 36 years Erlanger has never received more than $3.5 million dollars from Hamilton County.
$3.5 million dollars. That's just a fraction of what other metro Tennessee counties provide their public hospitals.
To put that number in perspective, Erlanger's indigent care costs reached $85 million dollars last year alone.
In fact, Erlanger ended last year with $9.5 million dollars in losses.
State Rep. Gerald McCormick says the amount Hamilton County provides Erlanger is quote, pretty bad, and 'such a tiny percentage of Erlanger's revenues that it's not even significant.' 
Erlanger CEO Kevin Spiegel acknowledges that other counties fund their public hospitals more, but he says lobbying the city and county for more money isn't the answer.
And some commissioners say the hospital doesn't deserve more money because of mismanagement, lavish severance packages and high executive salaries.
Commissioner Fred Skillern said quote: "The way Erlanger has been operated over the last several years, I don't think it should get a dime. It is one of the worst-run businesses around."
Plus, Skillern says, citizens don't ask him to give more money to the hospital.
In the meantime, Spiegel says one solution is pursuing more state funding from Georgia and attaining status as a tax exempt non profit corporation.

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