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Cleveland Clinic stopped from Huron Hospital upgrade

About five years ago, Cleveland Clinic officials wanted to upgrade Huron Hospital's Level II center to a Level I trauma center, but the discussion was stopped "stone cold" by Cuyahoga County commissioners because they were concerned it would take business and patients away from county-owned MetroHealth Medical Center.

Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove met with City Council Friday on its plans to close its Huron Hospital’s Level II Trauma Center. During the meeting, Cosgrove dropped what some are calling a “bombshell” on the history of that trauma center.

Cosgrove said that the current plan to move Huron’s Level II trauma center to Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights has been talked about for some time.

Cosgrove also said that, about five years ago, Clinic officials were interested in upgrading Huron’s Level II center to a Level I trauma center and brought that proposal to the Cuyahoga County commissioners.

Cosgrove then said that the discussion on the upgrade was stopped “stone cold” by commissioners because they were concerned that it would take business and patients away from MetroHealth Medical Center, the county’s taxpayer-supported hospital which has a Level I trauma center.

The Cleveland Clinic wants to close Huron’s Level II trauma center as of January 2011.

Today’s meeting was a follow-up to a meeting Thursday, where community leaders had a chance to make a final pitch to the Cleveland Clinic to postpone its decision on closing Huron Hospital’s trauma center but Clinic officials were unable to attend that meeting.

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge was the one who called Thursday’s meeting and asked that the Cleveland Clinic delay implementation of the consolidation from the scheduled start in January.

“This decision has enormous implications for residents in Cleveland, East Cleveland and other communities near Huron Hospital. More review is needed to assess the impact of longer transport times for trauma patients who would be taken to either MetroHealth Hospital or Hillcrest, the nearest Level I and Level II trauma facilities,” said Fudge.

“Beyond quality of care concerns, a longer ambulance ride entails higher costs to the the cities of Cleveland and East Cleveland. The full impact is not yet known.”

Fudge stated that the Cleveland Clinic’s decision has not given the affected communities adequate time to implement a major re-routing of their emergency medical systems.

She also requested more information on how the loss of trauma services at Huron will impact cost and staffing at the county’s publically funded hospital, MetroHealth.

“The Cleveland Clinic is the largest employer in the City of Cleveland. We appreciate its investment in quality care, state of the art medical research and presence in our community. As a non-profit institution and beneficiary of a tax exempt status, however, the Clinic also has an obligation to deliver charity care.”

“Huron Hospital is a vital anchor to a poor and predominately minority community. The majority of severe trauma injuries treated at Huron occur within a five-mile radius of that hospital, not in the vicinity of Hillcrest.”

“Until all stakeholders have an opportunity to join in the discussion and fully assess the impact, I (ask) the Cleveland Clinic to delay implementation of this decision.”

Cleveland EMS Commissioner Ed Eckart says that this closing will change the Cleveland EMS response time.


WKYC-TV

WKYC provides comprehensive media coverage of the business of health care in Cleveland. WKYC is also a MedCityNews syndication partner.

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