In his first community report in Akron, Cleveland Clinic Akron General President and CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove said the health system is proud to be a part of the Akron community.
“We are here in Akron to stay in Akron, to invest in Akron and to try to make you as much a part of the Cleveland Clinic health care system as it’s possible to do,” Cosgrove told hundreds of community leaders and hospital employees gathered for an hourlong presentation Wednesday evening at the John S. Knight Center.
The presentation was peppered with videos highlighting patient-care stories and innovations and advances for the Clinic. Though Cosgrove has spoken before Akron community members at other events since the health system agreed in 2014 to become the minority owner by investing $100 million in the hospital in order to take over ownership after a year, he said he wanted to be a community resource and “as transparent as possible.”
“We have been working very hard in the last several years in terms of integration into the Akron community. We’ve added substantially to clinical programs. Our quality and patient scores have improved significantly. We’ve saved millions with vendors and supply chain purchasing,” Cosgrove said.
And the Clinic has added 300 new jobs to the Akron General system, bringing total employment to 5,800, he said.
Concrete will soon be poured on a new $49 million emergency room being built at the Akron General main campus, which will triple the size of the existing ER, Cosgrove said.
“We can’t get it done fast enough,” he said. “We’re delighted we’ve had great weather this winter … we expect it to be done by November of next year, and hopefully we can push even faster. The need is there.”
Akron General is considered one of three hub hospitals in the Cleveland Clinic system, with Hillcrest (Mayfield Heights, east suburban Cleveland) and Fairview (on Cleveland’s west side) being the others, Cosgrove said.
It is the Clinic’s second-largest hospital and Akron’s second-largest employer, behind rival Summa Health.
In an interview before his community report, Cosgrove listed more improvements that have been added to Akron General in recent years, which he said reinforces the commitment to Akron. They include bringing in high-risk obstetrics physicians, reinforcing cardiac surgery, adding oncologists and greatly expanding the neurology department.
Dr. Brian Harte, president of Akron General, said during the interview that further physical investments include a specialized neurological unit for epilepsy patients and increasing its cancer care center capabilities. This September, Akron General will implement electronic health records, allowing for patient records to be accessed at any Clinic facility.
Cosgrove spent a majority of his community presentation outlining Cleveland Clinic’s vast system. Cosgrove heads the system, which had annual revenues last year of $8 billion.
Some highlights from Cosgrove included:
• The reach beyond Northeast Ohio of the Clinic, including facilities in Las Vegas for Alzheimer’s patients and international facilities in Toronto and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Cosgrove said the Cleveland Clinic recently purchased an office building in London and will be converting it to a 200-bed hospital by 2020. It will be the first new hospital in London in 20 years, he said.
• Innovations such as the IBM Watson Health Building being built near the Clinic’s Cleveland campus in an effort to house the “IBM health care data analytics enterprise.” The partnership will allow the Watson computer to help read tremendous amounts of health care documents and research, Cosgrove said.
He also talked about a partnership with Microsoft to use hologram technology that could allow medical students to study anatomy without cadavers. “This will be very good for the social life for first-year medical students, as they’ll no longer smell of formaldehyde,” Cosgrove said to laughter in the crowd.
Cosgrove ended his time with a question-and-answer period. Questions included how to address the projected nationwide shortage of 100,000 physicians in two years; he responded that the Clinic is expanding its primary care medical school training and training more advanced practice caregivers, such as physician assistants, as it can.
Presidential panel
Cosgrove was also asked about his participation on President Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum of about 15 CEOs.
“I knew that was coming,” Cosgrove said to chuckles.
“There has been a considerable amount of pushback as to why I should be involved in that, since there are very strong feelings in many parts about the president,” he said. “Our considered opinion as an organization was ‘Is it better to be at the table and part of the discussion than not part of the discussion?’ ”
Cosgrove said he was at the White House on Tuesday and had the opportunity to be a part of discussions with Trump and five Cabinet members, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The group made suggestions about how to help prepare high school graduates for unfilled jobs.
“The president was very engaged in the discussion. We spent an hour and a half with small groups, and then we all came in and reported to the president on our discussions with the small groups and that was another hour and a half. It was a terrific opportunity to have input,” he said.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ.