Cleveland Clinic

Line-of-Business (LOB) Definition

The Cleveland Clinic's Line of Business was the multi-specialty system known for their quality in patient care and innovation. The Clinic differentiated itself from other health care systems by their process of care delivery, excellence in many specialty areas, and continued focus on outcome measurements to capitalize on learning and quality improvement.

Strategic Intent

The Cleveland Clinic's strategic intent was to deliver world class care for every patient the first time, on time, and every time. This was accomplished through their "Patient First" experience by focusing on three critical areas; effective processes, caring caregivers, and engaged patients.

Primary Needs:

Best in patient care through compassion, cooperation, and innovation (p. 1, 2, 3, 9)

The four physicians who founded Cleveland Clinic aimed to have "outstanding patient care provided through cooperation, compassion and innovation." The 2004 CEO, Cosgrove also made it a point for the Clinic to process a care for delivery to their patients. This was chosen as a primary need because the Clinic went out of its way to be known for patient care and innovation by continuously updating IT programs and reaching out to patients by utilizing surveys to stay on top these needs. The Clinic had a cardiac surgery registry which improved the care given to those patients. Another way to insure that the patients were receiving the best care was by being the first to improve in technique and medical devices that reduced complications and boosted success rates. The Quality Institute was developed to make sure that patients and doctors had information available to them when needed. The "Patient First!" experience was to be met by all employees. Quality for patients was not only meant to be succeeded by the staff, but also in the area technology, so that patients had access to doctors and information to improve their experience.

Best multi-specialty health care system (p. 1, 2, 4, 5, 19)

The Cleveland Clinic ranked among one of the best U.S. hospitals that offered "excellence in many specialties." The Clinic was also one of the first in the nation to provide multi-specialty clinics. Cleveland Clinic offered cardiac surgery, cardiology, research, and training of medical students; kidney transplant affiliates, and a Center for Brain Health among others. The goal of being the best multi-specialty health care provider was achieved by having specialty teams system-wide to "deliver the right care at the right place for every patient, at the right time with the right cost."

Secondary Needs:

Innovative in regards to medical outcome measurement (p. 7, 8)

CEO Dr. Cosgrove wanted everyone in the system to understand that to deliver quality care to patients; this was focused by measurable qualities. This was done in every aspect of the hospital's, such as safety, respect, housekeeping, services, facilities, and care. Reports were prepared and were able to be viewed on the web. Measuring outcomes of quality was to assist staff in learning and improve in what they already offer.

Cosgrove knew that they were not able to be the best at everything, but by showing the public what you are good at challenges them to do the same. This is a secondary need because they do not focus solely at being sure they are the best at inventing ways to improve quality, but constantly prove to the public what they are able to do extraordinary.

Medical education programs/training for residents and fellows (p. 4)

Cleveland Clinic was one of the nation's largest training and educational programs. The Clinic offered training for graduate medical residents and fellows. Since the Clinic received an endowment, they trained on both clinical care and research at no cost to the students. This is listed as a secondary need because it is a great asset for the hospital to provide world class learning. The medical training program also provided enormous community acceptance and college referrals.

Recognized brand across the world (p. 2, 13, 14, 21)

The reputation of The Cleveland Clinic grew while under the leadership of Kiser. Patients would travel from Canada to be seen by the Cleveland Clinic, which lead to a Clinic opening in 2006. A Clinic opened in Abu Dhabi, where they signed a long-term contract; opening this clinic would provide an improvement in care and it would also be tended to as a learning lab. By being known around the world it created opportunities for growth, improvement care and quality, patient and doctor referral and proposals. In 2010, The Cleveland Clinic had patient distribution in more than 10 countries.

Required Needs:

Constant data measurement of quality care to patients (p. 3, 4, 6, 9)

Cleveland Clinic needed to make sure that the patients they were treating were receiving the best quality care and in order to do so data had to be measured. The Quality Institute was founded and, MyPractice, MyConsult, Support Institutes, Special Expertise Institutes, and Patients First were tools that track data of employee to patient care or patient feedback. Knowing the outcome of the patient experience is a rock bottom foundation on how well the hospital is doing and what improvements need to be made.

Standardization of medical care over multiple locations (p. 6)

With multiple locations, it is very important to make sure that vision, mission and standards all match system wide. The organizational structure should ensure that is being met, so Dr. Cosgrove assigned multidisciplinary teams, organized "Institutes" and phone and video conferences. This was use to ensure that practices were the same across all units.

Provide an array of special services (p. 3, 4, 9)

Cleveland Clinic not only needs to focus on the patient needs, but also the needs of their families, translators, and referring doctors. In 2007, the Chief Experience Officer started directing its staff to ask patients what else they could do for them during the time in the hospital which led to new amenities, accommodations for families, and redesigned gowns. This is something that is required for the hospital to keep referrals coming to the Clinic and not only satisfy the patients, but everyone involved with the care of that patient.