Cleveland's big three hospital systems are making efforts to transform their businesses so they can become more efficient, more customer-oriented and more accessible to a wider range of patients, according to The Plain Dealer.
Here are three things that each system is working on.
University Hospitals
- UH is building outpatient clinics across Northeast Ohio. It has opened outpatient centers in Fairlawn, Euclid and Independence, and has another under construction in BroadviewHeights, according to the report. It is also building a new rehabilitation clinic in Avon.
- UH also has been involved in numerous deals to expand its hospital network in Ohio. In April, UH and Ravenna, Ohio-based Robinson Health System signed a letter of intent to fully integrate Robinson Memorial with the University Hospitals. Also, in March, University Hospitals and Samaritan Regional Health System, based in Ashland, Ohio, announced they were taking steps toward signing a letter of intent to integrate SRHS into the UH system.
- Additionally, UH in May announced plans to create a coordinated regional trauma network of UH hospitals. The initiative will enable UH to respond to community need for more immediate and enhanced access to high level trauma services in UH's expanding coverage area.
Cleveland Clinic
- Cleveland Clinic is overhauling its procedures for delivering care through an effort known as "clinical transformation," a campaign to standardize protocols for dozens of surgeries and other services throughout its hospitals, according to the report.
- Cleveland Clinic is also building new facilities across the country and around the world, including a new medical center in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The new facility opened in May.
- Additionally, Cleveland Clinic has struck deals to provide heart care and other services with 15 large employers across the U.S., according to the report. They include Lowe's, Walmart and the aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing.
MetroHealth
- MetroHealth this year created a department of "integration and transformation," which is focused on making care more consistent, as well as on fundamentally rethinking how the hospital is organized and used by patients and physicians, according to the report.
- MetroHealth has also started construction of a $1.2 billion transformation of its main campus that will modernize operations, add community health and fitness programs and reshape fundamental methods of providing care. This effort includes the elimination of central nursing stations in an intensive care facility under construction on its main campus. Instead of having one central station, there will stations positioned outside every two rooms.
- Additionally, earlier this year, MetroHealth launched a program to give cell phones to "high-risk" elderly patients to continuously monitor their conditions. It has also started opening clinics in Drug Mart stores to address patients' on-the-go needs, according to the report.
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