Hospital authorities and the hospitals they operate must be transparent.
The state’s highest court has the opportunity to send a strong message to all governing bodies that the public’s business must be public.
Open government is the law in Georgia.
We are pleased to learn the Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to consider the arguments of the Georgia Press Association, the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and plaintiff E. Kendrick Smith.
Northside Hospital in Atlanta had denied Smith’s open records request for financial records dating back to 2013. The authority’s position was simply that the hospital is not subject to the Georgia Open Records Act.
Northside’s nuanced argument continues to be that the hospital is not truly a public hospital but is a private nonprofit corporation, created by a hospital authority.