State of the Clinic: In 2024, Cleveland Clinic Serves Most Patients in its History

In 2024, Cleveland Clinic served the largest number of patients in its history with more than 15 million patient encounters worldwide, CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic, M.D., announced in today’s annual State of the Clinic address.

“We have never played a greater role in people’s lives,” said Dr. Mihaljevic, holder of the Morton L. Mandel CEO Chair at Cleveland Clinic. “Being a caregiver carries a tremendous sense of purpose. We heal, innovate and work as a team. Our goal is to do as much good as possible united by a single mission – caring for life, researching for health and educating those who serve.”

The State of the Clinic presentation emphasized Cleveland Clinic’s continued commitment to caring for patients, caregivers, communities and the organization, while also reviewing 2024’s highlights, digital transformation efforts, enterprise growth, and research, innovation and education.

Caring for Patients:

Cleveland Clinic is committed to finding opportunities to continue improving patient safety, patient experience, patient outcomes, and access, while eliminating waste and reducing costs, including:

• In Florida, Hospital Care at Home has proven safe and affordable.
• The inclusion of physicians in emergency department triage led to better care and more patients seen.
• By standardizing care, central line infections greatly improved in just two years.
• This year, patient access will be improved through expanded hours and the use of outpatient areas on nights and weekends.

“These are wonderful opportunities to create new standards of care that are sustainable, and available, to more patients,” Dr. Mihaljevic said.

Caring for Caregivers:

With input from caregivers throughout the organization, Cleveland Clinic is focusing on:

• Reducing job stress and improving work/life balance.
• Improving communication to support the best patient care.
• Cultivating more respect and inclusion for all caregivers.
• Ensuring the safety of all caregivers.

Speaking directly to Cleveland Clinic’s 83,000 caregivers worldwide, Dr. Mihaljevic said, “Caregivers form the heart and soul of our global organization. Your dedication, compassion and commitment to excellence are the pillars of Cleveland Clinic care. Every day, you answer the call to serve those in need. But it is equally important that we care for ourselves and each other.”

Cleveland Clinic’s job turnover and vacancies are below national averages, he said, due to a workplace culture that values and rewards caregivers with industry-leading benefits and market-appropriate compensation.

Caring for Community:

In the communities Cleveland Clinic serves, the primary health threats to children are infant mortality, lead poisoning and hunger.

To address those issues, Cleveland Clinic has:

• Created the Center for Infant and Maternal Health, which serves neighborhoods with the highest rates of preterm birth and low birth weight. Over a two-year period, Cleveland Clinic’s maternity centers have seen reductions in these complications.
• Funded the Lead Safe Child Care Pilot Program to address and eliminate lead hazards at childcare sites in Cleveland.
• Partnered with Meijer to transform a food desert with the opening of Fairfax Market near main campus.
• Opened food pantries in Akron, Avon and Warrensville Heights, while partnering with a mobile pantry that visits schools in South Florida.

As a charitable organization, Cleveland Clinic offers financial assistance to patients who cannot pay their medical bills, while also being a leading provider of Medicaid services. In 2023, Cleveland Clinic’s collective community benefit reached a new high of $1.46 billion.

Caring for the organization:

The health system generated nearly $16 billion in revenue in 2024, exceeding its projections, though its 1.7% operating margin fell short of expectations.

“Years have passed since the COVID-19 pandemic and healthcare has not recovered. Today, about 40 percent of U.S. hospitals continue to lose money,” Dr. Mihaljevic said. “In the past, we could predict Cleveland Clinic’s financial health based on our productivity and expense management, but even that has changed … The primary reason is that we face new financial challenges that we didn’t encounter in the past.”

Those challenges include: a sharp increase in uncompensated care, totaling an estimated $370 million; increased drug costs; surging malpractice insurance rates; persistent inflation; and workforce shortages.

“Many of our peers have not been able to withstand these pressures,” Dr. Mihaljevic said. “We are doing well by comparison because of the demand for our services, and because we continuously innovate the delivery of care.”

Cleveland Clinic continued to grow in 2024.

• At Hillcrest Hospital, the Lozick Cancer Pavilion opened.
• On main campus, the expanded Cole Eye building will open in February. Interior construction of the neurologic building has begun. The first of two new research buildings at the Innovation District will open in 2026. A new master plan is being designed to incorporate the future needs of healthcare while integrating the campus more closely with the surrounding community.
• In downtown Cleveland, the Global Peak Performance Center, in partnership with the Cleveland Cavaliers, will become the world’s leading athletic hub.
• In Florida, Cleveland Clinic is partnering with the Palm Beach community to raise funds for a future outpatient building and hospital.
• In the United Arab Emirates, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi will celebrate a decade of excellence this year.

“There is no limit to the amount of good we can do for patients,” Dr. Mihaljevic said. “Our imperative is to grow responsibly and deliver absolute excellence.”

Automation and artificial intelligence are being used to continue innovating, improving patient care, reducing caregiver burnout and streamlining operations. Examples include:

• Using AI to identify sepsis – a life-threatening condition caused by an overwhelming immune response to an infection – quickly and start treatment promptly, resulting in more lives saved.
• Employing AI to help caregivers reply to MyChart messages and act as a medical scribe during appointments.
• Working with tech companies to develop safe, ethical and capable technology.
• Developed a commercially viable AI product, co-developed with Palantir, to simplify every variable in moving patients through the hospital.

Research, Innovation and Education:

Cleveland Clinic’s research priorities cover debilitating diseases and related systems, such as inflammation, neurological, heart and vascular, vision, and cancer. For instance, he said, modern cancer therapy can be tailored to individual patients using their own cells.

In 2024, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine celebrated 20 years as the first tuition-free medical school in the United States.

In closing the State of the Clinic presentation, Dr. Mihaljevic said, “Through foresight, dedication and perseverance, we have shown that the best of healthcare can thrive in the most challenging times. During this next year and beyond, we will be asked once again to reinvent how care is delivered. As a team, I have no doubts that we will succeed.”