On Monday, April 18, the first day of Healthcare Innovation‘s Midwest Summit, Cliff Megerian, M.D., CEO of the University Hospitals health system, shared his vision of where his organization is headed, and where U.S. healthcare as a whole needs to be headed. Speaking to an audience gathered at the Westin Downtown Cleveland, Dr. Megerian touched on a range of issues, including health equity, community benefit, and his and his colleagues’ commitment to enhancing the health of the Cleveland metropolitan area. University Hospitals (UH), according to its website, is “a comprehensive health system with annual revenues of $4.5 billion, 23 hospitals (including 5 joint ventures), more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and over 200 physician offices located throughout 16 counties.”
As UH’s website notes, “The System’s 1032-bed, tertiary medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, is an affiliate of Case Western Reserve University. Included on UH’s main campus are University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, among the nation’s best children’s hospitals; and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, part of National Cancer Institute-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University (the nation's highest designation). More than 28,000 physicians and employees constitute University Hospitals and its partnership hospitals, making it Northeast Ohio’s second largest private sector employer. UH performs more than 10.8 million outpatient procedures and over 142,000 inpatient discharges annually. University Hospitals’ goal is to provide comprehensive primary and community-based care – the kind of health care people need most – as well as access to the highest quality specialty care when necessary.”
Megerian referenced facts from UH’s 2021 Annual Report, including “Launching clinical trials for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, that today total 220, including such noteworthy studies for remdesivir and the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, while at the same time maintaining UH’s non-COVID-19-related research programs where approximately 3,000 active studies are underway… [and c]reating a COVID-19 biorepository that now comprises 20,000 blood, respiratory and other samples to enhance research efforts.”
After referencing notable achievements in the history of University Hospitals, Megerian went on to address the present, emphasizing UH’s commitment to the Cleveland and northeastern Ohio community. Among other issues, he noted, “We’ve worked to address the notion of the SDOH. Despite the fantastic organizations that populate Cleveland and Ohio, all of us have just begun to tease apart what’s necessary to break apart the paradigm that your health and longevity are more based on your zip code than on the health systems in your area.” And, in that regard, he said, “We need to focus on health equity, not just healthcare,” and to address root causes of inequality in healthcare.
Megerian shared with the audience a slide that showed several interconnected wheels, labeled “culture of trust,” “scientific discovery,” “the patient first,” “exceptional care,” and “partnerships,” and explained that creating a culture of trust provides a foundation for the others wheels, which are a primary areas of focus for University Hospitals health system. Among other things, he said, “We’ve reengineered the way we think about investments in community. Our community is our patients. We need to have a more meaningful impact on the most important needs.”
A part of building a culture of trust, Megerian said, has been a core focus on patient safety and quality outcomes. In that regard, he noted, “We’ve been able to drive down errors and harm,” and noted that UH’s accountable care organization participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program for ACOs, has “received 100 points out of 100 in quality measurement.”
Meanwhile, Megerian reported, “We spent $489 million last year on community benefit, but are focusing those acutely on the social determinants of health. We saw the opportunity to leverage the power of our 32,000 caregivers.” In that context, he showed the audience a slide that showed three pillars of the health system’s community health investment strategy, concentrated in five areas. The three pillars are anchor and social venture, social service, and regional community health. The five focus areas are workforce development, anchor strategies, well-being and safety, food security, and maternal and child health. “One quick example,” he said, “has been our decision to spend $32 million for our Center for Women and Children. We wanted to bend the curve per infant mortality,” he said, with regard to that investment in maternal and children’s health. At the same time, he noted, UH has invested “upstream” in promoting lead abatement, including investing $1.2 million in lead abatement in homes, and donating $1 million to support the $20 million Lead-Free Cleveland loan fund.
In all this, Megerian said, “We feel that by being able to deliver by virtue of a strong strategic plan and operating model, we’re able to bend the curve on inequality.” And, he said, UH’s solid operating margin allows the organization to continue to invest very heavily in its local metropolitan area, including in specific communities in need.
