Leaders of several black groups said Friday that a study shows minority managers at Erlanger Medical Center are mainly in the lowest pay level positions.

Floyd Kilpatrick and Johnny Holloway also said they could not find any Erlanger contracts going to minority firms.

Mr. Kilpatrick said the group has met with County Mayor Claude Ramsey to share their findings. He said they will meet with Mayor Bob Corker on Monday and with Erlanger interim CEO Charlesetta Woodard-Thompson on Thursday.

Mr. Kilpatrick said the group wants Erlanger to adopt similar procedures as those followed by Hamilton County on encouraging doing business with minority firms.

He also said the group wants to do similar studies of the hiring and business practices of Memorial and Parkridge hospitals as well as city and county government.

Here is the full report:

POSITION STATEMENT:

This coalition represents a cross-section of citizens of Chattanooga that are concerned with the current employment and contracting practices at Erlanger Medical System.

It is our position that there exists a prevalence of disparate treatment of minority employees resulting from racial and gender bias at Erlanger Hospital which does, and will continue to have an adverse impact upon all aspect of the Hospital’s relationships both inside and outside the institution. The lack of anti-discrimination policy enforcement by the Board of Directors, the absence of a Diversity Officer, and the present and historical practices, alleged attitudes, and behavior of some of the leadership of the Hamilton County Hospital Authority has a direct impact on the internal operation of Erlanger Hospital’s hiring and promotion practices of women and minority employees, as well as the ability of African American non-physician vendors to secure service contracts with the hospital.

These practices combined serves to cripple and retard any meaningful growth in the area(s) of economic development, race relations and full inclusion.

Additionally, it is our considered opinion that there exists a pressing need to examine these same practices within the other major institutions in Hamilton County in both the public and private sector(s).

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW:

Erlanger’s roots can be traced to a gift of $5,000 from the Baron Emile d'Erlanger, a French railroad tycoon. His visit in 1889, prompted physicians and railroad executives to raise $50,000 for what was to be named Baroness Erlanger Hospital.

The baroness was born in 1842 on a “prosperous” Louisiana plantation 90 miles north of New Orleans, but her father's political and legal career took the family from New Orleans to Washington, D.C., and then to Paris. In 1864, Marguerite Mathilde Slidell married Paris banker Baron Frederic Emile d'Erlanger.
Erlanger has survived in a climate of Post Civil War Reconstruction resistance, two World Wars, The Great Depression, State and locally crafted Jim Crow legislation, and Court ordered Segregation under the Doctrine of Separate but Equal.
From its inception on August 21st, 1891 with a 72-bed hospital to its current capabilities to serve the residents, within a 150-mile radius, of Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia, from the free labor economic system of slavery to modern day systemic practice which prohibit full inclusion for protected classes of individuals, Erlanger has reflected the prevailing norms of the community in which it was created. Under Senate Bill No. 1499 Erlanger became the Chattanooga – Hamilton County Hospital Authority and as such falls under federal regulation(s) of Titles VI, and VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as amended, and Executive Order 11246 to mention a few.
ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE:

Erlanger Health System (EHS) is a 819 bed licensed care system and regional referral hospital that provides a full range of services in five (5) facilities – Baroness Erlanger Hospital, T. C. Thompson Children’s Hospital, Erlanger North, Erlanger East, and Erlanger Bledsoe.

EXPANSION PROFILE:

Erlanger East Hospital is located on Gunbarrel Road in the eastern part of Chattanooga and Hamilton County. The hospital currently has 28 beds that primarily provide women’s services, more specifically obstetrics and general outpatient surgery. Population and utilization trends in eastern Hamilton County suggest a strong demand for additional acute and outpatient services. Since EHS already has facilities in the market area, it is well positioned to take advantage of this increased demand. The optimal expansion effort at Erlanger East is targeted at seventy-two (72) additional beds. Programming analysis and demographics suggests the additional beds would generate business growth from the competition and the population growth along with some shift of business from the Erlanger Baroness Hospital facility.

The estimated cost for the Erlanger East expansion project is $53,840,190.00. The EHS Board of Trustees has designated $20,000,000.00 of available cash to be restricted for this project. A bond issue is anticipated to finance the balance of the project and possibly reimburse EHS for cash expended on the project, depending on market conditions at the time of bond issuance.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE:

A: Population

In the 2000 Census, Nationwide, AA comprise about 19 % of the US population. The minority population for Hamilton County is about 23.7 % and for the City of Chattanooga, minorities comprise about 40.3 % of the population.

B: Employment

Approximately 21.3 % of the Hospital’s 4,662 workers are AA . Of the 137 managers at Erlanger, 10 % are AA. Erlanger is divided into X# of cost centers or department units and AA employees are located in every unit within the institution. However, 93% of the AA managers at the institution are located in the Support Services Cost Center, which is comprised of 5 units (Patient Care Services, Planning & Construction, Engineering, Materials, and Environmental Services), with a total of 439 employees or 9.4 % of the total employee population at the Hospital Authority. Environmental Services, which is a sub-unit of Support Services, comprise 53% (233) of the employee workforce within that cost center. 93% of the AA managers at Erlanger are here, in the Environmental Services Division of the Support Services Cost Center.

In other words, one unit, Environmental Services, comprised of less than 5% of the total Hospital employee population, houses 93% of all the AA managers at the institution. These statistics suggest strongly that career AA employees in management positions at the institution are confronted with both glass walls in environmental services that somehow prevent lateral transfers into management in other areas of the hospital, and glass ceilings within the remaining 95% of the employee environment of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hospital Authority.

C: Contracts

The Hospital Authority, according to 2003/04 fiscal year activities, contracts with over 750 vendors nationwide. Of those 750 vendors 128 or 17% are physically located in Hamilton County. Vendors outside Hamilton County secure 83% of vendor contracts. The Authority does not have a Diversity Officer; nor does she have a system for identifying or tracking minority vendors. There are 216 registered minority businesses in Hamilton County according to data received from the African American Chamber of Commerce . Not one listed minority business could be identified as having a contract with the Chattanooga – Hamilton County Hospital Authority.

Because there are no recording or tracking systems in place by Hamilton County Government or the City of Chattanooga that monitors minority sub-contractors, we cannot estimate their involvement without federal investigation or judicial jurisdiction (litigation).

ADVERSE IMPACT:

The lack of anti-discrimination policy enforcement by the Board of Directors, the absence of a Diversity Officer, and the present and historical practices, alleged attitudes, and behavior of some of the leadership of the Hamilton County Hospital Authority has a direct impact on the internal operation of Erlanger Hospital’s hiring and promotion practices of women and minority employees, as well as the ability of African American non-physician vendors to secure service contracts with the hospital.

Accordingly, these longstanding normative racial attitudes give way to conditions of institutionalized systemic discriminatory practices which appear to have an adverse impact on a protected class of individuals in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 USC 2000, et. seq., and should be revisited / changed at the earliest opportunity.

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Floyd Kilpatrick, Pres.
Chattanooga Chapter Operation PUSH

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Johnny Holloway, Vice-Pres./Moderator
Chattanooga Chapter Operation PUSH