HealthSouth and I
In case you didn't know, other than the war, HealthSouth
has been the biggest story on Wall Street.
Of course, in Birmingham AL, where it is based, and where I live, it is the
biggest story for the last few years.
I first came in contact accidentally with HealthSouth in 1990 when looking
for on-campus employment at UAB. I was looking for American
Sports Medicine and went to Alabama Sports
Medicine by accident (they are on the same block, by the way). The facility
was awesome, and in the later years, I learnt that all the famous athletes came
here when they got injured. I was so proud of it, because it was just behind my
apartment.
In 1992, the CEO of HealthSouth, Richard Scrushy had delivered the
valedictory lecture when I got my Masters (I attended the function as a
spectator, because I couldn't afford to rent the gown).
Many years later, I attended a gala hosted by Anderson Consulting (known as
Accenture now) at the HealthSouth Corporate HQ. Again, I was impressed
by the elegance and the ambience of the HealthSouth campus. HealthSouth seemed
like a company with deep pockets, and I tried to do some business with them.
A couple of years, an opportunity came. My wife met with a Vice President at
HealthSouth, but was appalled at the immature and incompetent management.
They were growing too fast and too haphazard to establish business processes. The Scrushy era is over now. He has been fired and might even go to
prison. What Enron did it to Houston, HealthSouth has done it to Birmingham. The
half-finished, state-of-the art Digital Hospital on a prime spot on Highway 280
has been abandoned, and many people have lost their life-time savings. All the
roads, university buildings, hospitals, and charities in Birmingham bearing the
name of Scrushy and/or HealthSouth are embarrassed and enraged. So am I.
(Comments Disabled for Now. Sorry!) | First Written: Tuesday, April 1, 2003 Last Modified: 4/1/2003 |
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