To Act as a Unit - The Story of Cleveland Clinic

The 1990s began the period of Cleveland Clinic’s most fundamental change. The Clinic needed to offer a broader range of basic healthcare services to a larger population to be able to financially support its specialty and sub-specialty services. That meant taking stock of its Northeast Ohio marketplace, expanding offerings on main campus and bringing Cleveland Clinic care to surrounding communities. While the Clinic was expanding locally, its national reputation continued to grow. The Clinic undertook a strategy to emphasize the full range of specialties, boost research, and build new laboratories and clinical facilities.

In 2004, the Board of Trustees selected Dr. Toby Cosgrove as CEO and President. Cosgrove tightened the Clinic’s focus on patient care, establishing “Patients First” as the institutional mantra. He promoted quality improvement, improved patient experience, and instituted greater transparency and accountability at all levels of the organization. He oversaw the establishment of Clinic facilities in West Palm Beach County, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; and the United Arab Emirates. The Clinic reorganized its clinical services into patient-centered institutes, and appointed the first Chief Wellness Officer and Chief Experience Officer at any major medical institution.

Cleveland Clinic retained its identity as a specialty medical center where elite practitioners treated the sickest of the sick using the most advanced techniques and technology. But now those activities were being supported by a broad platform of primary care, family health and advanced practice nursing, with more than 200 points of entry across Ohio, Florida and abroad. Cosgrove retired at the end of 2017, and Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic was appointed CEO and President. Mihaljevic’s goal is to make Cleveland Clinic the “best place for patient care, and the best place to work in healthcare.”

Cleveland Clinic retained its identity as a specialty medical center where elite practitioners treated the sickest of the sick using the most advanced techniques and technology. But now those activities were being supported by a broad platform of primary care, family health and advanced practice nursing, with more than 200 points of entry across Ohio, Florida and abroad. Cosgrove retired at the end of 2017, and Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic was appointed CEO and President. Mihaljevic’s goal is to make Cleveland Clinic the “best place for patient care, and the best place to work in healthcare.”

The COVID-19 pandemic tested every skill that Cleveland Clinic had acquired in its long history. Caregivers mounted an all-out, enterprisewide effort to blunt the virus’s effects — building a surge hospital in weeks, launching a massive testing operation, caring for thousands of patients, pioneering treatment and prevention strategies, and safeguarding communities. The teamwork that had been the Clinic’s guiding principle for a century lighted the way forward.

The story of Cleveland Clinic Florida is an inspiring tale. What began in 1994 as a group specialty practice in Fort Lauderdale with nine doctors grew into a renowned academic medical center serving patients from Weston to Coral Springs to West Palm Beach. Cleveland Clinic Florida includes Weston Hospital, Indian River Hospital in Vero Beach, Martin Health System’s three hospitals in Port St. Lucie and Stuart, the Cleveland Clinic Florida Research and Innovation Center and numerous outpatient centers located in five counties across southeast Florida.

The Cleveland Clinic health system was assembled, mostly during an 18-month period beginning with the acquisition of Marymount Hospital in late 1995. The result was the creation of a comprehensive regional healthcare system linked by electronic records, shared care protocols, and critical care transport. Unlike the main campus hospital, the Clinic’s regional hospitals also grant admitting privileges to community doctors in private practice. Each of the hospitals in One Cleveland Clinic has its own rich history. Their histories and origins are as diverse as the communities in which they are located.