OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR Albany Deserves Better Than ProPublica’s Dated Hit Piece By Reggie Hammond To the Editor:
As someone born and raised in Albany, Georgia, I read ProPublica’s recent article on Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital with disbelief—not because our city is above critique, but because the piece seems determined to paint Albany with a brush dipped in outdated data, selective storytelling, and misplaced outrage. We are now years removed from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet ProPublica has chosen this moment—when the entire nation is wrestling with an unraveling health-care system— to publish an investigative takedown of a nonprofit community hospital in one of Georgia’s most economically challenged regions. This choice reveals a troubling misalignment of priorities. At a time when the Affordable Care Act is again under open political threat… At a time when the Secretary of Health and Human Services is removing experienced public-health leaders, undermining science-driven policy, and creating dangerous instability in national preparedness… At a time when rural hospitals across America are closing at record speed… ProPublica decided the most urgent story in health care was Albany, Georgia. Not Medicaid expansion failures. Not the collapse of rural public health. Not the national nursing shortage. Not the intensifying partisan war on health insurance coverage. Albany. Our Albany. A Story Built on Old Facts and Old Photos The article leans heavily on experiences and staffing challenges rooted in the 2020 COVID crisis—a moment when Albany was one of the hardest-hit communities in the United States. Anyone who lived through those months knows the trauma, the loss, and the structural inequities that made our city particularly vulnerable. But the most telling oversight? ProPublica used a 2020 leadership photo to imply a lack of diversity at Phoebe when the current leadership team—visible on the hospital’s own
website—is far more diverse. If a basic fact like executive composition wasn’t updated, what else did this reporting fail to revisit? Investigative journalism demands rigor, context, and fairness. This report offers none of the above. Instead, it revives a frozen, pandemic-era version of our hospital and presents it as present-day truth. Albany’s lived reality—and Phoebe’s current operations—deserve better than that. Who Is Helped by This Article? Certainly Not Albany. Let’s be clear: the article does not support our community. It undermines recruitment at a time when rural hospitals are already struggling to hire nurses and physicians. It fuels outdated narratives about dysfunction in majority-Black Southern communities. It may dampen philanthropic support for uninsured patients. And it distracts from the real structural barriers that shape health outcomes in Albany and cities like ours. Criticism is fair game. But criticism must be current, accurate, and contextualized. This story is none of those things. The Real Crises Deserving National Attention If ProPublica wanted to shed light on health injustice in America, Albany could absolutely be part of that narrative—but not as a political detour. The real headlines today are about: • States refusing Medicaid expansion • Rural hospitals on the brink of closure • A national shortage of health-care workers • Growing attacks on the ACA • Weakening of science-based leadership at the federal level • Structural racism driving chronic illness in majority-Black communities These forces—not the outdated anecdotes highlighted in ProPublica’s piece—pose the greatest threat to Albany’s long-term health. Albany Is More Than the Story They Chose to Tell
My hometown is far from perfect. No community hospital serving a high-poverty region could be. But Albany is not defined by the worst days of COVID, and we refuse to be reduced to inattentive journalism that fails to check basic facts. Albany deserves reporting that is timely, accurate, and respectful of the people who rely on our safety-net systems. We deserve journalism that pushes for structural change—not cheap shots at a local hospital taken years after the crisis has passed. We invite scrutiny. We welcome accountability. But we demand integrity. ProPublica missed the moment. And they missed the mark. Albany has earned better reporting than this—and we insist on it. Respectfully, Reggie Hammond Albany Native, Community Advocate, and Purpose-Driven Leadership Coach
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