Lawsuit and Buying the Hospital

The Lawsuit and Buying the Hospital is the process of the crash survivors suing the hospital and then buying it.

Timeline
After the plane crash, the surviving doctors met with a rep to determine what to do next. They were offered a settlement from Bayview Aeronautics, which owned the plane they were on. However, after Derek visited the hangar where they had the fragments of the aircraft laid out to inspect, he convinced the others not to settle and they instead decided to sue. ("Love the One You're With")

After deciding to sue, they met with lawyers, who talked about calculating damages in order to find an amount to sue for. They could then go after the charter company or the pilot to get the money. They disliked the idea of suing Jerry, seeing him as one of them. Derek and Callie specifically talked with the lawyer about Derek's hand, but Callie was uncomfortable saying it had failed and Derek would never operate again. She was pushed into saying that, but later recanted, saying she was still working on it and wasn't ready to give up. They met with the lawyers again and after asking Owen to leave, they said they'd be going after the hospital, the people that put them on the plane. ("Second Opinion")

Owen met with the hospital's lawyers after the lawsuit was filed. Richard tipped him off to his being married to Cristina affecting the lawsuit. The lawyers then admitted to him that they hoped the judge would throw the lawsuit out because of it. Owen instead decided to ask Cristina for a divorce. ("I Was Made for Lovin' You")

After Cristina confronted him about the reason for the divorce, Owen admitted he asked for it because he wanted them to get the money. ("Run, Baby, Run")

They debated about the divorce for a while before signing the papers. ("Things We Said Today")

They expected the lawsuit to take months and were shocked when the judge ruled on the first day that the hospital was at fault and awarded the plaintiffs $15 million each. They were told the insurance company would be giving them checks soon. Callie pressured them all to go out to dinner to celebrate, though they felt it was blood money and didn't want to celebrate it. At the same time, Owen found out the insurance company wouldn't pay because no more than two attendings were supposed to be allowed on a medi plane at the same time and Arizona was the third when she replaced Alex. The hospital would be forced to declare bankruptcy and pay out the money. ("The End is the Beginning is the End")

In order to help with their financial troubles, the hospital hired Alana Cahill, a physician advisor. After touring the hospital, looking for ways to trim the budget, Alana suggested closing the ER to save money, as it was a big source of loss for the hospital. ("Walking on a Dream")

She found other ways to improve efficiency, including OR turnover time and using remote physicians to reduce physician error. Derek and April created a plan to cut the budget to save the ER, but Alana revealed to them the hospital couldn't be saved simply by cutting the budget and she was trying to make it presentable to sell it. ("Bad Blood")

She found an interested buyer, Pegasus Horizons, which already owned several hospitals. After touring another Pegasus-owned hospital and disliking the changes that would have to be made, Callie suggested to the crash survivors that they use the money from the lawsuit and buy the hospital themselves. ("The Face of Change")

The doctors struggled to stall the sale to Pegasus in order to give them the time to put together all the money they needed to buy the hospital. With no other option, they all resigned, changing the value of the hospital and causing Pegasus to back out. ("Hard Bargain")

Alana then tried to get Pegasus back to the table and got them to agree to buy the hospital for parts. The doctors went to a potential investor to raise the remaining money for the purchase. They were left in a bind when he decided not to invest. However, Richard told Catherine of their plan and she decided that the Harper Avery Foundation would put up the rest of the money in exchange for a representative from the foundation sitting on the board, a position for which she chose Jackson. ("This is Why We Fight")

After the purchase, a new board filled with the crash survivors, plus Callie, Richard, and Jackson, started working on repairing the hospital back to its old greatness. As part of that, they decided to reopen the ER to regain their level 1 trauma center standing and they also renamed the hospital to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. ("Transplant Wasteland")

Characters Present

 * Meredith Grey
 * Cristina Yang
 * Callie Torres
 * Arizona Robbins
 * Derek Shepherd
 * Owen Hunt
 * Richard Webber
 * Catherine Avery
 * Jackson Avery
 * Andy