Attorneys for Savannah, Ga.-based Memorial University Medical Center and the Savannah Morning News reached an agreement Wednesday to give the newspaper certain documents regarding a recent hospital business that were first requested in December under the state's Open Records Act, according to the Savannah Morning News.
The newspaper filed a lawsuit Dec. 6 to see the hospital's financial documents, including those regarding the failed strategic partnership between Memorial and Winston Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health as well as Memorial's impending sale to Nashville, Tenn.-based Hospital Corporations of America.
The agreement will give the newspaper most of the documents requested, though those related to the HCA deal will be held until after the sale is finalized in early March. As part of the agreement, Memorial officials do not admit the release of the documents is related to the open records request.
Because Memorial is a nonprofit, county hospital, Savannah Morning News officials argued the public had a right to know about the organization's financial well-being.
"Access to Memorial documents which would allow the public to evaluate the stewardship exercised over these public assets, whether good or bad, should be promptly granted upon request by any citizen or newspaper," David Hudson, an attorney for the newspaper, told the Savannah Morning News.