Appreciating retiring Crain’s Detroit reporter Greene

Eric Starkman of Deadline Detroit writes an appreciation of retiring Crain’s Detroit Business health care reporter Jay Greene.

Starkman writes, “Greene has been covering health care for so long that I suspect Hippocrates was one of his sources. He’s spent the last 13 years at Crain’s Detroit, and before that covered nonprofits for Crain’s Modern Healthcare, an industry bible. Greene’s institutional health care knowledge is unrivaled, not only in Michigan but across the country. He’s a stickler for detail, his reporting painstakingly accurate.

“Greene’s many accomplishments include being the first to expose that Beaumont Health, Michigan’s biggest hospital network, under CEO John Fox and COO Carolyn Wilson was more focused on profits than quality patient care.

“Greene in December 2019 reported on budget cuts and staffing issues at Beaumont Trenton. He quoted Zachary Lewis, chairman of the hospital surgery department, saying this: ‘We just want to take care of more patients. We have been accused of not doing enough, the nurses not working hard enough. … My only conclusion is they are trying to cut costs any way they can — saving money by not hiring nurses — to increase their margins.’

“Underscoring the accuracy of Greene’s reporting about problems at Beaumont Trenton, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently assigned a two-star quality rating to the hospital, out of a possible five.”

Read more here.