The MetroHealth System, Cleveland
Founded in 1837, The MetroHealth system is a safety-net provider that operates five hospitals, four emergency departments and 20 health centers in and around Cleveland. It serves more than 300,000 patients and employs more than 8,000 doctors, nurses and other staff.
MetroHealth is also an academic medical center in partnership with Case Western Reserve University. medicine School and houses a Level 1 trauma center as well as Ohio’s only adult and pediatric burn and trauma center.
In October 2022, MetroHealth completed its replacement acute care hospital, The Glick Center. (For a detailed profile on the project, read here).
The project serves as the anchor for a billion-dollar investment by the organization in its main campus and surrounding community, a highly diverse and economically challenged area on Cleveland’s west side. In fact, he launched a series of initiatives designed to support MetroHealth’s burgeoning mission to go beyond healthcare to improve the health and lives of its patients and community.
That meant supporting its neighbors in many ways, from creating a new transportation line with bus stops at its main campus and other locations, providing a health and science curriculum at a high school located inside the hospital, and building affordable housing on site for qualified community members. members.
Meanwhile, as part of the construction of the Glick Center, MetroHealth saw a huge opportunity on the campus itself. Once the former hospital is demolished, the site will feature significant green space to further connect it with surrounding neighbors and provide much-needed parkland to this dense urban location.
Inside the new hospital, the city itself is reflected through a robust arts program featuring local artists, a performance area for theater and dance, and a color palette inspired by murals and other public art in nearby neighborhoods to establish a truly welcoming atmosphere.
And to ensure this investment serves the community for years to come, MetroHealth embraced the idea of flexibility and adaptability well beyond industry best practices, integrating a “neutral process.” This approach uses a universal design throughout its 312 patient rooms as well as the intervention platform, plus modular and mobile components throughout, to ensure the hospital can change to adapt to the needs of caregivers day to day. and year after year.
Additionally, last year, the system opened projects including a new facility for advanced cellular immunotherapies. The project makes MetroHealth the first safety-net hospital in the U.S. to offer patients next-generation cancer treatments. Additionally, the organization opened the 112-bed MetroHealth Cleveland Heights Behavioral Health Hospital that consolidates services for adult, geriatric and adolescent patients and meets a critical need for mental health care in that community.
These recent efforts, and many that have preceded them, show a health system that is being redefined through an evolution in the way it provides care and the spaces in which that care takes place, addressing the specific needs of members of your community and establishing the system. as a model for all.
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