About The Cleveland Clinic

About The Cleveland Clinic

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation is a multispecialty academic medical center, a National Referral Center and an international health resource dedicated to providing patients with excellence in all aspects of their care. One of the world’s first group practices, the Cleveland Clinic was formed in 1921 when four Cleveland physicians came together and set forth their professional standards: “Better care of the sick, investigation of their problems, and further education of those who serve.”

The second largest medical group practice in the world and the largest hospital in Ohio, the Cleveland Clinic includes the 12-story, state-of-the-art Crile Building, a 956 staffed-bed hospital (including Children’s Hospital), the Cleveland Clinic Educational Foundation and the Lerner Research Institute. This integration of clinical and hospital care with research and education in a private, not-for-profit group practice distinguishes the Cleveland Clinic in American medicine.

In 2003, the Cleveland Clinic recorded 2.6 million outpatient visits and over 52,000 hospital admissions. Among them are patients from all 50 states and 100 foreign countries. More than 1,300 full-time physicians and scientists and 825 house staff/fellows provide patient care in 100 specialties and subspecialties.

The quality of medical care at the Cleveland Clinic is often recognized for excellence. Every year since 1990, the Cleveland Clinic has been designated by U.S. News & World Report as one of only 10 hospitals in the United States to be considered “The Best of the Best.”

Research, one of the three cornerstones named by founding fathers, is actively pursued by basic scientists and physicians. Through the years, the Cleveland Clinic has been a world leader in medical breakthroughs and innovations largely because of the collaboration of physicians and scientists.

The Lerner Research Institute has spearheaded numerous advances in the diagnosis and treatment of complex medical problems. In 2003, the Institute reported $109 million in total grants, a dramatic endorsement by others of the quality of Cleveland Clinic research.

The founding fathers’ dedication to training the next generation of physicians continues today. The Cleveland Clinic Educational Foundation has one of the largest freestanding medical education programs in the country and has made significant contributions to the dissemination of medical knowledge.

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Stats, Facts and Milestones

Ranking by Patient Admissions:

1. Columbia Presbyterian Center of New York, 79,903
2. Jackson Memorial Hospital (Miami), 50,075
3. Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 48,344
4. LAC-University of Southern California Medical Center, 48,038
5. William Beaumont Hospital/Royal Oak (Royal Oak, Mich.), 47,717
6. Barnes-Jewish Hospital (St. Louis, Mo.), 46,715
7. Methodist Hospital of Indiana (Indianapolis), 45,127
8. Riverside Methodist Hospital (Columbus, Ohio), 44,875
9. Montefiore Medical Center / Moses Division (Bronx, N.Y.), 44,828
10. Hackensack University Medical Center (Hackensack, N.J.), 44,347

Ranking by Number of Surgeries Performed:

1. University of Iowa Hospitals, 76,014
2. Columbia Presbyterian Center of New York (New York), 54,033
3. William Beaumont Hospital/Royal Oak (Royal Oak, Mich.), 50,138
4. Shands Hospital at the University of Florida (Gainesville), 46,580
5. Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore, Md.), 45,894
6. Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 40,427
7. Mt. Sinai Medical Center (New York), 39,679
8. Christiana Care Hospital (Newark, Del.), 38,848
9. North Shore University Hospital (Manhasset, N.Y.), 36,701
10. SW Texas Methodist Hospital (San Antonio), 36,104

Ranking by Number of Staffed Beds:

1. LAC-University of Southern California Medical Center (Los Angeles), 1,787
2. Methodist Hospital of Indiana (Indianapolis), 1,262
3. Bergen Regional Medical Center (Paramus, N.J), 1,185
4. Mt. Sinai Medical Center (New York), 1,183
5. Jackson Memorial Hospital (Miami), 1,084
6. Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit), 1,030
7. Via Christi Regional Medical Center (Wichita, Kan.), 1,009
8. Shands Hospital at the University of Florida (Gainesville), 941
9. St. Mary’s Hospital of Rochester, 940
10. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles), 923
11. Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 920

Ranking by Number of Patient Days:

1. Columbia Presbyterian Center of New York (New York), 630,759
2. Jackson Memorial Hospital (Miami), 352,121
3. Bergen Regional Medical Center (Paramus, N.J.), 306,708
4. Mt. Sinai Medical Center (New York), 303,131
5. Montefiore Medical Center / Moses Division (Bronx, N.Y.), 292,894
6. Bellevue Hospital Center (New York), 282,158
7. Methodist Hospital of Indiana (Indianapolis), 281,301
8. LAC-University of Southern California Medical Center (Los Angeles), 277,350
9. Barnes-Jewish Hospital (St. Louis, Mo.), 272,547
10. William Beaumont Hospital/Royal Oak (Royal Oak, Mich.), 266,220
11. Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 264,728

Ranking by Bed Occupancy Rate:

1. Columbia Presbyterian Center of New York (New York), 194.6%
2. St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital-Roosevelt (New York), 123.1%
3. Montefiore Medical Center / Moses Division (Bronx, N.Y.), 118.2%
4. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital (Greensboro, N.C.), 103.9%
5. Forsyth Memorial Hospital (Winston-Salem, N.C.), 102.9%
6. Fairview-University Medical Center (Minneapolis), 100.8%
7. St. Vincent’s Hospital (New York), 99.4%
8. Christiana Care Hospital (Newark, Del.), 96.1%
9. St. Vincent Hospital & Health Care Center (Indianapolis), 95.0%
10. Masonic Geriatric Healthcare Center (Wallingford, Conn.), 94.8%
41. Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 78.8%

*Rankings are based on non-federal specialty/acute, children’s general/specialty acute with 500+ beds.
Source: SMG Marketing Group, Vantage Point Second Quarter 2001
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Medical Milestones

Feb. 28, 1921: Mrs. M.A. Codding of Lodi is the first of 42 patients admitted on the first day the Clinic is open.

December 1945: Irvine H. Page, M.D., is named director of the Research Division, a key moment in the development of the Clinic’s reputation as a leader in medical research. Dr. Page and his team make major discoveries linking high blood pressure to heart disease.

1948: Arda Alden Green, Ph.D., Irvine H. Page, M.D., and Maurice Rapport, Ph.D., isolate serotonin. This breakthrough is associated with the development of Prozac, among other advances.

1950s: George Crile Jr., M.D., pioneers conservative surgical techniques for treating breast and other cancers, achieving the same results with less disfiguring therapies than the then-standard radical mastectomy.

1951: George Phalen, M.D., identifies carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful disorder that affects workers whose jobs involve repetitive wrist and hand movements.

1955-1967: Colorectal surgeon Rupert Turnbull Jr., M.D., develops the “no touch” technique to isolate diseased tissue, thus preventing the spread of cancer cells during surgery for colon cancer. This greatly reduces the mortality rates after colorectal surgery.

1956: Heart surgeons Donald B. Effler, M.D., and Laurence K. Groves, M.D., stop and restart the heart of a 17-month-old with the aid of a heart-lung machine developed by Willem A. Kolff, M.D. While the boy’s heart is stopped, the surgeons repair a congenital hole.

1958: Cardiologist F. Mason Sones Jr., M.D., develops coronary angiography, which allows doctors to view the heart and its vessels through moving X-rays. Angiography paves the way for the development of bypass surgery.

1958-1968: Researcher Helen Brown, Ph.D., had a major part in determining the role of dietary cholesterol in cardiovascular disease and creates the first diet to reduce cholesterol levels.

1960: Carl E. Wasmuth, M.D., and colleagues in the Department of Anesthesia are able to control blood pressure during and after cardiac surgery using sodium nitroprusside. This development reduces postoperative complications and mortality.

1963: Surgeons Ralph A. Straffon, M.D., Eugene F. Poutasse, M.D., And Willem A. Kolff, M.D., pioneer kidney transplantation and revascularization, performing one of the first successful cadaver kidney transplants. Dr. Kolff had developed the dialysis machine.

1967: Heart surgeon Rene Favaloro, M.D., pioneers coronary bypass surgery, which today saves tens of thousands of lives each year.

1968: The Cleveland Clinic’s first heart transplant takes place, inaugurating a program that today, is the busiest heart transplant center in the United States of America.

1971: Bypass surgery undergoes its most important refinement as Floyd D. Loop, M.D., refines operative techniques, does extensive follow-up on bypass patients, and pioneers approaches to lowering the cost of hospitalization for cardiac surgery.

1972: Floyd D. Loop, M.D., William L. Proudfit, M.D. And William C. Sheldon, M.D. establish a cardiovascular information registry, the world’s first computerized registry of data on cardiac diagnosis and treatment.

1976: America’s first department of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology is founded at the Cleveland Clinic under the chairmanship of F. George Estafanous, M.D.

1980s: Cardiothoracic surgeon, Delos M. Cosgrove, M.D., Develops a computerized device that monitors a patient’s condition and automatically administers drugs according to need. Dr. Cosgrove also develops a mitral valve retractor and annuloplasty ring that affords a more effective repair.

In collaboration with cardiac perfusionists, Bruce W. Lytle, M.D., introduced and refined a technique that extends the safe interval of total circulatory arrest necessary to perform these complex surgeries without neurological complications.

1991: Cardiothoracic surgeon Delos M. Cosgrove, M.D., Pioneers aortic valvuloplasty, a procedure that allows surgeons to repair diseased heart valves.

1992: Neurosurgeon Gene H. Barnett, M.D., And researcher Donald W. Kormos, Ph.D., develop the sonic wand, an imaging technique that allows brain surgeons to pinpoint lesions with unprecedented ease and precision.

Cleveland Clinic Heart Center surgeons perform the world’s first mitral valve repair and Maze procedure in the same operation. The Maze procedure crates new pathways for the electrical impulses that trigger the heartbeat.

Heart Center surgeons perform Ohio’s first heart/double lung transplant.

June 1994: The Harry R. Horvitz Palliative Care Center is dedicated. The World Health Organization has designated the Cleveland Clinic Palliative Care Program an official WHO Demonstration Project for better cancer care.

April 30, 1995: The first baby is born at the Clinic’s new Birthing Services Center. Obstetric services at the Clinic had been discontinued in 1966.

October 1995: Clinic researchers receive a grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to develop the continuous flow pump, which will be used as a long-term bridge for patients awaiting a heart transplant.

November 1995: The Clinic and NASA Lewis Research Center enter a three-year agreement to collaborate on research projects designed to benefit both health care and space exploration.

December 1996: Cardiothoracic surgeons perform the 500th heart transplant at the Cleveland Clinic since 1984. The Clinic maintains one of the country’s largest cardiac transplantation programs while exceeding the national average survival rates.

March 1997: Surgeons perform the 2,000th kidney transplant at the Cleveland Clinic.

January 1998: Cleveland Clinic otolaryngologist Marshall Strome, M.D., performs the first successful total larynx transplant.

January 1998: Lerner Research Institute Bruce Trapp, Ph.D., and Clinic neurologist, Richard Rudick, M.D., discovered the concepts of pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. This discovery opens the possibility of treating the disease with drugs that protect nerve cells from dying.

April 1998: Cleveland Clinic establishes Women’s Health Section, designed to provide comprehensive primary medical care for women, encourage greater research into women’s health issues, and train a new generation of physicians who are more responsive to women’s needs. The program is one of 19 nationwide and the first in the area.

May 1998: Cleveland Clinic sponsors First Restenosis Cybersummit – believed to be the first of its kind in the United States. Cardiologists from around the world gather on the Web to address the latest developments in the treatment of restenosis and field questions on-line from the global audience.

March 1999: Richard M. Ransohoff, M.D., a neuroscientist at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute and the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research, leads study that identifies molecules involved in MS inflammation.

April 1999: Richard Rudick, M.D., director of the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, is principal investigator of a study showing that drug therapy slows the rate of brain shrinkage in MS.

September 1999: World’s first baby born following robotically assisted fallopian tube reconnection operation performed by Tommaso Falcone, M.D., head of the section of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Section.

September 1999: Olympic and world champion figure skater Scott Hamilton announces the C.A.R.E.S. Initiative in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center. Mr. Hamilton launched the Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship (C.A.R.E.S.) following his own successful battle with the disease.

September 16, 1999: Health Hill Hospital for Children officially changes its name to the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation to emphasize its alliance with the Cleveland Clinic Health System.

September 18, 1999: The Cole Eye Institute is dedicated. The new home of the Cleveland Clinic’s ophthalmic services, research and education, the Cole Eye Institute is named to reflect a $10 million gift from Cole National Corp.

October 1999: The Cleveland Clinic is chosen as one of three U.S. medical institutions to participate in a gene therapy clinical trial to inject Leuvectin — a DNA complex that produces interleukin-2 — into the prostates of men with cancers that are difficult to treat by standard means.

December 1999: The Cleveland Clinic Health System Gamma Knife Center treats its 500th patient. The gamma knife is used to deliver pinpoint-precise radiation treatments to patients with brain tumors when surgery and traditional radiation therapy are not possible or effective.

February 2000: Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute scientists Serpil Erzurum, M.D., And Suzy Comhair, Ph.D., discover that levels of certain lung enzymes decrease during allergen-provoked asthma, creating the potential to develop novel drugs to fight the disease.

March 2000: Cleveland Clinic physicians Inderbir Gill, M.D., And Craig D. Zippe, M.D., pioneer a minimally invasive technique to remove the prostate. The procedure, a laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, is designed to decrease recovery time and pain in men who must have cancerous prostates removed.

April 2000: Cleveland Clinic researchers led by Michael S. Lauer, M.D., discover that the measurement of "heart rate recovery" time following a routine exercise test is a powerful predictor of mortality, even among otherwise, healthy middle-age adults.

May 2000: The Cleveland Clinic’s Harry R. Horvitz Center for Palliative Medicine is recognized by the American Hospital Association for its care of patients with cancer and other complicated diseases.

May 2000: Investigators from the Cleveland Clinic and Cornell University identify a protein receptor responsible for much of the buildup of low-density lipoprotein in patients with atherosclerosis. The research, led by Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., of the Lerner Research Institute, will be the basis for novel therapies to combat hardening of the arteries.

June 2000: The Cleveland Clinic acquires the former Mt. Sinai Integrated Medical Campus in Beachwood. Renamed the Cleveland Clinic Beachwood Family Health Center, the campus offers on-site radiology, laboratory and pharmacy services, as well as advanced outpatient surgery at the Ambulatory Surgery center.

July 2000: For the sixth year in a row, U.S. News & World Report ranks the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center as the best in the nation. Among its other honors, the Clinic also is listed fourth in U.S. News & World Report’s Honor Roll of Hospitals, the only Ohio medical institution to make this list.

July 12, 2000: Cleveland Clinic trustees, medical staff and members of the Daniel T. Taussig family dedicate the Taussig Cancer Center, home of the region’s largest cancer center.

August 24, 2000: The Cleveland Clinic Independence Family Health Center is dedicated. The site combines two separate Independence sites and allows new or expanded services in areas such as mammography, family medicine and allergy.

September 2000: Cleveland Clinic Drs. Jonathon Drummond-Webb and Peter Koltai perform a rare slide tracheoplasty on an infant who is little more than 2 weeks old. The child becomes the youngest patient ever to receive the surgery, which removes an abnormally narrow section of the trachea to restore normal breathing capabilities.

December 2000: Cleveland Clinic researchers Richard Crownover, M.D., And Raymond Rodebaugh, Ph.D., coordinate a CyberKnife trial in which a robotic radiosurgery system is tested to determine whether it can treat moving lung tumors. The trial, designed to provide alternative treatment for lung cancer patients unable to undergo surgery, is the only one of its kind in the world.

December 2000: The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Hillcrest Hospital, a member of the Cleveland Clinic Health System, are rated among the nation’s Top 100 hospitals by Solucient, a health care information and benchmarking company. Solucient’s 100 Top Hospitals Benchmarks for Success study recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in quality of care, efficiency of operations and sustainability of overall performance.

January 2001: A research team led by Kang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., of the Cole Eye Institute identifies a disease gene associated with macular degeneration. The newly identified gene, ELOVL4, is responsible for a majority of autosomal dominant forms of Stargardt’s macular degeneration, the most common form of early-onset macular degeneration.

January 2001: Cleveland Clinic cardiologist James B. Young, M.D., Is tapped to serve on a national advisory committee that will help to develop policy on organ transplantation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

January 2001: Patrick Whitlow, M.D., Director of the Department of Interventional Cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic, becomes the first cardiologist in the United States to use a new type of disposable coronary artery catheter. The disposable catheter is designed to eliminate obstructions in fully blocked arteries that now limit minimally invasive treatment. The Cleveland Clinic also is selected to conduct the first U.S. trial of the product.

March 2001: Two major academic/scientific posts are created at the Cleveland Clinic as part of a commitment to expand and enhance education and research. Eric J. Topol, M.D., becomes the Clinic’s first Chief Academic Officer, and Richard A. Rudick, M.D., becomes the hospital’s first Director of its new Center of Clinical Research.

March 2001: Cleveland Clinic cardiologist James D. Thomas, M.D., NASA’s lead scientist for ultrasound, watches from Earth as the digital echocardiography laboratory he designed to monitor the effects of long-term space flight on the heart is installed on the international space station.

April 1, 2001: Cleveland Clinic Florida, Naples Hospital opens its doors to the public. The new 70-bed, 170,000-square foot hospital features a hotel-like atmosphere for patients. The hospital includes an intensive care unit and an emergency services department.

June 30, 2001: The Clinic's first-ever public fund-raising campaign breaks its $225 million goal and wraps up a year ahead of schedule. As of June 30, 2001, the "Securing the 21st Century" campaign has raised $256 million.

July 13, 2001: For the seventh year in a row, U.S. News & World Report ranks the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center as the best in the nation. For the fourth consecutive year, the Clinic is listed among the nation's top five in the magazine's Honor Roll of Hospitals.

July 14, 2001: The Departments of Colorectal Surgery and Gastroenterology combine at one site to form the Digestive Disease Center. The new center is the first of its kind in the nation.

July 14, 2001: The Clinic's Nurse On Call program celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Launched with four nurses, the free program now utilizes the skills of 22 registered nurses who take 250,000 calls a year from across the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the Middle East.

July 26, 2001: The Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital dedicates its new 17-bed, Level III neonatal intensive care unit.

November 2001: Researchers from the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention and the Lerner Research Institute demonstrate that people with increased levels of myeloperoxidase (MPO) in their white blood cells have increased prevalence of coronary artery disease.

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