Last year's bailout of bankrupt Southwest Hospital by a group of doctors and businessmen has descended into acrimony, lawsuits and even fisticuffs as two factions of the group sling accusations at each other.

While the power struggle swirls, the Atlanta hospital's chief executive officer said patient services are increasing and he's comfortable with the quality of care. The chairman of the hospital's board says it is just about to reintroduce the historically black institution to a community that has revered it as a place that has served prominent African-Americans as well as the least fortunate.

But critics say basic services such as surgery have been slow to reappear since the hospital opened in January, three months later than initially touted. Now called Legacy Medical Center, the hospital is on its third CEO in nine months. The plan to start building a replacement hospital next door has been pushed back, and a wellness center that was to focus services for illnesses that disproportionately afflict African-Americans is now described as a "long-term goal."

"It is absolutely heartbreaking," said Johnnie Clark, who was chairwoman of the hospital's board before the bankruptcy and supported the new board's plans to take over. "My sense is that it was simply a dysfunctional group of people who had come together to run a business."

Members of the board's majority faction point to increases in hospital services in recent weeks, after its certification last month to bill Medicare — and the fact that it's simply up and running.

"Legacy hospital is one of the first hospitals to ever close and reopen successfully," said Regina Molden, a lawyer who works with the majority.

But Work admits that when the hospital was opened in January, it was "a desperation measure" to meet a deadline to resume seeing patients. Steven Grant, the hospital's CEO, said since then it has seen more than 2,000 patients and admitted about 50. He said one minor surgery had been performed on campus, but the hospital could not accept serious auto accident or gunshot victims.

He said about a quarter of the patients have had private health insurance, which he hopes can help make the hospital "a very viable, strong entity" now that the hospital has a billing system.

Work said the hospital has refurbished its appearance and fixed air conditioning and delivery systems for gases such as oxygen. The state Human Resources Department, which inspects medical facilities, has certified the institution as an acute-care hospital.

But the minority faction on the board, including Edward Layne, a gastroenterologist who helped lead the effort to save the hospital, said many changes have been cosmetic and fault the majority for not taking solid business steps. Layne said he and other board members have not received regular financial statements, and have been cut out of hospital oversight by the creation of a second, nonprofit, board.

Some facts were unclear. The hospital released a written statement last week saying it offers MRI services, but Grant and Work said it does not yet.

A spokeswoman for Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital said last week that Grady does Legacy's lab work and provides test results. But Grant said Grady only does so when Legacy has problems with its equipment.

It is the lab work that most concerns C.T. Martin, an Atlanta City Council member who rallied the community behind the new board. In recent interviews, he questioned whether transporting lab samples to another hospital 10 miles away could have serious consequences for patients. For instance, Martin said, a patient with chest pains who goes to Legacy could have to wait for critical test results to be called in after blood is sent to Grady. Grant responded that the hospital was doing its own testing, including blood, and he was "very comfortable" with the hospital's current patient care.

When the Rev. Joseph Lowery declared the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's victory in an anti-apartheid boycott in 1986, he held the news conference at Southwest, where he had been receiving treatment. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s grandson was born there. Patients have included luminaries from such important African-American institutions as the Atlanta Daily World newspaper, the Urban League and Wheat Street Baptist Church.

Though integration made top-flight care at formerly white hospitals available to affluent blacks, 40-year-old Southwest remained a beacon for the poor. But that meant the hospital needed patients with private insurance to help it stay open for the indigent ones. Last year, a temporary delay of Medicaid payments to Georgia hospitals put Southwest out of business.

With six votes on the board, Work and two others began questioning the consultants and business plans the others thought had been decided. Another member was added through his investment in the hospital, and joined with Work's group to form a majority. The minority sued, saying the addition was illegitimate.

Work counters that it is the minority's litigation that has scared away lenders, hamstringing the majority's efforts to pay employees and finance the hospital's rebirth.

Layne, Work, and their allies in each group accuse the other group of having impeded progress out of a desire for control, and each group has taken court action against the other.

The acrimony reached its low point in March during a board meeting at which the majority, led by Ross, replaced Layne and another doctor, Mai Ha, as signatories on the board's bank accounts. By the end of the meeting, according to a tape recording, Ha delivered an enraged speech, after which harsh words were exchanged, including someone saying, "I will kill you."

Ha says it was Ross to her husband, who was there with her, but Ross' lawyer disputed that account. The fracas climaxed when Ha's husband decked Ross, Ha said.

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