At Cleveland Clinic, it is our obligation to give back to the communities we call home. Our neighbors are our extended family. We cannot succeed unless those around us also do well. We're proud to announce that in 2021, in a difficult economic environment for healthcare, the Cleveland Clinic Health System provided $1.22 billion in benefit to the communities where we operate in Ohio, Florida and Nevada.
We serve our communities in many ways: by working to improve public health; by recruiting, training and hiring local people; by investing in neighborhood development projects; by contracting with diverse suppliers; by subsidizing the cost of healthcare for those in need; by educating future caregivers; and by funding medical research that will save lives. All of those activities are important, but we are especially focused on helping the most vulnerable among us. We continue to work with our community partners to eliminate dangerous lead in homes, reduce infant deaths, curb the prescribing of opioid drugs, provide affordable housing, and improve access to healthy food, preventive care, and mental health and substance abuse services.
The Community Benefit provided by Cleveland Clinic is far-reaching, from providing accessible healthcare, to educating the next generation of healthcare professionals, funding medical research that leads to advanced treatments and cures, and supporting community health initiatives.
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For the third year, Cleveland Clinic served a pre-Thanksgiving meal to seniors and low-income residents throughout Cleveland’s Fairfax, Central, Hough, Glenville and East Cleveland neighborhoods, and in the downtown Akron area. Three-thousand meals were served—about 900 more than in 2020.
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Food insecurity is among socioeconomic determinants of health that we are committed to improving for community members. We joined Greater Cleveland Food Bank in connecting families in East Cleveland neighborhoods with produce and dairy products at Cleveland Clinic’s Stephanie Tubbs Jones Health Center.
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Cleveland Clinic moved nimbly to get COVID-19 vaccines to our community. We offered vaccinations at our family health centers and operated community-based vaccination clinics.
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Inside Cleveland Clinic Florida’s Research and Innovation Center, a special biosafety lab lets researchers safely study harmful viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 to speed the search for new treatments and vaccines.
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Black babies in the United States are four times as likely as other babies to die in their first year of life. Cleveland Clinic has expanded programs that connect mothers to prenatal care and parenting education, and that help families with food, transportation and other basic needs.
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Our patient transporters help patients travel from their homes to clinical facilities for a variety of treatments, diagnostics and therapies.
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At our Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, a mixed martial arts fighter has his balance assessed as part of the Professional Athletes Brain Health Study. The project’s researchers are examining the cumulative effects of repeated head impacts. Their findings could help guide new policies and practices to protect athletes, military members and others.
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In Martin County, Florida, Cleveland Clinic partnered with the nonprofit House of Hope, which helps those facing hardship or hunger, to bring a mobile garden to underserved neighborhoods. About 1,400 residents have experienced the garden and learned something new about nutrition and gardening.
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Each summer, Cleveland Clinic hosts a community farmers market at its main campus, where visitors can partake of healthy, local food in a convenient, environmentally friendly way.
Community Health Needs Assessment Reports
The Cleveland Clinic health system completed comprehensive community health needs assessments (CHNAs), which included all communities surrounding the system’s hospitals and family health centers. The goals of these assessments were to identify and evaluate health-related needs in the communities Cleveland Clinic serves and to use this information to fulfill our mission.
