Cleveland Clinic, founded in 1921 by a group of faculty and alumni from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is a nonprofit American academic medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation, it runs a 170-acre (69 ha) campus in Cleveland, as well as 11 affiliated hospitals, 19 family health centers in Northeast Ohio, and hospitals in Florida and Nevada. International operations include the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi hospital in the United Arab Emirates and Cleveland Clinic Canada, which has two executive health and sports medicine clinics in Toronto. Another hospital campus in the United Kingdom, Cleveland Clinic London, opened to outpatients in 2021 and fully opened in 2022. Tomislav Mihaljevic is the president and CEO.
Cleveland Clinic is consistently ranked as one of the best hospitals in the world. For the past twenty years in the fields of cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery, Cleveland Clinic has been ranked and regarded as the best and highest-performing hospital in the world. In 2018–2019, the U.S. News & World Report ranked Cleveland Clinic as the number 2 hospital in the Best Hospitals Honor Roll, as it was nationally ranked in 14 adult and 10 pediatric specialties. Cleveland Clinic conducts its pediatric operations through the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital.
Cleveland Clinic's operating revenue in 2017 was $8.4 billion and its operating income $330 million. That year it recorded 7.6 million patient visits and 229,132 admissions. As of 2019, it has over 67,500 employees, a figure that includes over 17,000 registered nurses and advanced practice providers and over 4,520 physicians and scientists in 140 specialties. It is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, with which it started a physician-investigator medical training program: the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Cleveland Clinic is also the teaching hospital for Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine. In addition, Cleveland Clinic has 1,974 residents and fellows in 104 training programs approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The Cleveland Clinic publishes the peer-reviewed journal Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine.
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation is the third largest doctors group in the United States with 15,330 medical professionals as of September 1, 2022.
History
Beginnings
The organization grew out of the surgical practice of Frank J. Weed (died 1891) at 16 Church Street on the near-west side of Cleveland. The practice was purchased by his two assistants, Frank E. Bunts and George Washington Crile. In 1892 they were joined by Crile's cousin, William E. Lower, and in 1897 the practice moved to the Osborn Building on Prospect Avenue, downtown Cleveland.
A four-story outpatient building was constructed, and Cleveland Clinic was dedicated at a private ceremony on February 26, 1921. It opened its doors two days later to the public and registered 42 patients. By April 1921, it had 60 employees, including 14 physicians and four nurses. In 1922 the founders purchased four private homes nearby for hospitalization, radiation treatment, and administration. A fifth house was acquired as a residence for patients with diabetes receiving insulin treatments. To meet rising patient volume, a 184-bed hospital was built in 1924, located at East 90th Street and Carnegie Avenue. A power plant, laundry, and ice plant were also built. A research laboratory was constructed in 1928.
Cleveland Clinic fire
On May 15, 1929, nitrocellulose x-ray films stored in the basement of the outpatient building ignited. An explosion sent a cloud of toxic oxides of nitrogen and carbon though the building. One hundred and twenty-three people, including John Phillips, one of the founders, lost their lives. A dozen investigating agencies were not able to determine what had caused the fire. Cleveland Clinic's own inquiry narrowed the possible causes down to spontaneous combustion caused by heat; a discarded cigarette or match; and contact with an extension cord light hung over a stack of films.
Philanthropist Samuel Mather formed a committee of 36 community leaders to help Cleveland Clinic reestablish itself in temporary quarters across the street. Patient care services resumed five days later. The 1921 building was completely renovated, and a new three-story clinic building, with a new main entrance, was added in 1931. All debts were repaid by 1941.