University Hospitals Confronts Challenges of 2022, Emerges More Innovative and Nimble for 2023

By Cliff A. Megerian, MD, FACS
Chief Executive Officer, University Hospitals
Jane and Henry Meyer Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair

UH Clinical Update | December 2022

As the year winds to a close, I want to thank all caregivers at University Hospitals for the incredible work you’ve done in 2022.

This past year has been a challenging time in several ways, but we’ve also had many impressive accomplishments: UH this year won our industry’s highest honor, the American Hospital Association’s Quest for Quality Prize; we were named to the top 10 in Forbes’ list of best hospital systems to work for in Ohio; we were named by Modern Healthcare to its list of Top Diversity Leaders in the country for the second year in a row, and we were lauded by Ethisphere as one of the world’s most ethical companies.

On the clinical front, I’ll mention just a few of the extraordinary highlights of 2022:

• UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute’s CINEMA program, aimed at improving outcomes in patients with high-risk Type 2 diabetes, showed significant results in its first year by getting patients on evidence-based therapies such as SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists, further driving down their risk factors.
• After more than two years of construction, we completed the newly expanded and recently named Wesley Center for Immunotherapy at UH Seidman Cancer Center. The opening comes after a generous $10 million gift in 2020 from Kimberly and the late Joseph Wesley. Putting the wonderful new facility right to work, researchers at UH Seidman Cancer Center and a biotech start-up company developed a streamlined way to manufacture CAR T-cells for immunotherapy treatment in just 24 hours – a significant improvement over the team’s previous benchmark of eight days. This team is one of the first in the country to test this approach, which promises to speed up the delivery of CAR T therapy to those who need it most.
• The Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases awarded UH a $12.5 million grant, with the potential for another $8 million, to support us as a study site in the United States Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Network. We’ll collaborate with the VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System and Case Western Reserve University so that researchers can estimate clinical effectiveness for licensed vaccines by age group, influenza type and subtype. That is crucial to understanding how well vaccines work in a real-world setting. The Cleveland portion of the study is called CORVETS, which stands for Cleveland Ohio Respiratory Viruses Vaccines Effectiveness across Traditional Risk Factors and Social Determinants of Health.
• UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital became the first in the world to utilize the Pulse platform to perform pediatric spine surgery. This advanced technology is designed to increase safety, efficiency and procedural reproducibility of surgical outcomes in spine surgery.

Research Front

On the research front, we’ve also advanced our profile in many ways. We had $170 million in total research expenditures in 2021 and eagerly await the new numbers for 2022. We have 3,400 clinical research studies currently under way at UH, including more than 260 COVID-19 trials, making us a leader in Ohio. And our talented physicians and scientists continue to show how remarkably successful they are in securing external grant funding to support life-saving research. Our MR Research Center of Excellence, to just cite one example, has received an astounding $38 million in grant funding in just the last two years.

This is not unexpected. Pioneering medical research and breakthroughs is one of our four key differentiators at UH, rounded out by providing compassionate equitable care, improving the quality of care while reducing costs, and serving as the Hometown Team. Our local focus, in particular, sets us apart. Our more than 32,000 caregivers are dedicated to the Northeast Ohio communities where we live and serve our patients.

All of this is not to diminish from just how challenging 2022 has been. We clearly have faced obstacles. We hit a bump in the road in January with the Omicron virus, which created high patient volumes in our medical centers. Then came new challenges – specifically, massive inflation and cost escalations that created financial struggles for us, as well as nearly every other hospital in the country. The good news is we are responding very nicely with adjustments, by decreasing unnecessary expenditures and increasing our efficiency.

We made some tough decisions, but the UH system remains stable and strong and that strength is reflected in how quickly we can pivot to respond to these external forces. A vital reason for that is you, our caregivers, and the character and fortitude you display every day. I am so proud of the compassionate culture that imbues our system.

Changes for 2023

I’ve so enjoyed communicating with you in the “pages” of UH Clinical Update over the years. But starting in January, you will see a change in this monthly blog. I will move from writing this blog to writing a UH CEO blog, which will go out monthly as a stand-alone message to all UH caregivers.

In UH Clinical Update, you will instead find contributions from several of our clinical leaders, who will rotate in writing this lead blog; among them, Scott Sasser, MD, FACEP, UH's Chief Physician Executive; Michelle Hereford, MSHA, RN, FACHE, the UH System Chief Nursing Executive and the Ethel Morikis Endowed Chair in Nursing Leadership, and Paul Hinchey, MD, MBA, President, UH Community Network. I can’t wait for these accomplished UH leaders to share their considerable insights with all of you.

I wish all of you the happiest of holidays and joyous celebrations. May you find rest and rejuvenation as you spend precious time with your family and friends.