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.
