State of the Clinic: Cleveland Clinic Meets Healthcare Challenges with Innovative Solutions

As healthcare struggles with caregiver shortages, limited access and the pressure to provide better care to more patients at a lower cost, through intentional effort, Cleveland Clinic is meeting these challenges by implementing innovative solutions and a renewed set of guiding values, Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic, M.D., said during today’s annual State of the Clinic address.

“Cleveland Clinic is a model of what healthcare could become,” said Dr. Mihaljevic, holder of the Morton L. Mandel CEO Chair at Cleveland Clinic. However, he added, “for healthcare to prosper, the way it is structured needs to be different.”

In 2025, Cleveland Clinic completed nearly 16 million patient encounters and generated $18 billion in operating revenue, with an operating margin exceeding 4%.

The State of the Clinic presentation emphasized Cleveland Clinic’s continued commitment to caring for patients, caregivers, communities and the organization, while also reviewing the organization’s 2025 highlights, digital transformation efforts, enterprise strategy and growth, and research, innovation and education.

“At Cleveland Clinic, we are reimagining what healthcare could look like by using artificial intelligence to connect and enhance every aspect of care,” he said. “The future of healthcare is no longer science fiction … With creativity and responsibility, our potential to do good is limitless.”

Powerful technologies, like artificial intelligence, will help deliver care more affordably to more people at a greater scale.

“As the delivery of care evolves, so will our roles,” he said. “What is certain is that Cleveland Clinic will embrace technology to remain a leader in healthcare. … While we stay true to our mission, Cleveland Clinic’s values evolve with the changes in healthcare. By seeking (caregivers’) input, we have refreshed our values to be timeless, contemporary and reflective of all caregivers. I am proud to share them today: Serve with heart. Succeed as one team. Shape the future.”

Care for Patients

Cleveland Clinic will continue to focus on safety, quality and patient experience in 2026, Dr. Mihaljevic said, with a focus on documentation, medication safety, preventing harm and building trust.

In 2025, Cleveland Clinic was ranked the No. 2 hospital in the world by Newsweek for the seventh consecutive year, in addition to being named one of the World’s Best Smart Hospitals and one of the World’s Best Specialized Hospitals. In addition, Cleveland Clinic was named to U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals Honor Roll for the 35th consecutive year.

Care for Caregivers

Despite serving patients at hundreds of locations across three continents, Cleveland Clinic caregivers are one team.

“Together, we choose to be there for others in their time of need,” he said, “even as the pressures of delivering care fall upon us.”

Unfortunately, caregivers are too often subjected to workplace violence.

“Cleveland Clinic has treated this crisis with urgency, and caregivers no longer accept violence as part of working in healthcare,” Dr. Mihaljevic said. “We invested in security and training to protect us. Reporting is up, escalation is being caught sooner, and injuries are declining.”

Care for Community

Community initiatives include:

• Hunger: “Over the past three years, we have confronted hunger because food is medicine,” Dr. Mihaljevic said. “Getting nutrition to those in need is part of the care we provide.”
  • Cleveland Clinic has opened more food pantries in Northeast Ohio, formed partnerships to deliver groceries to children and parents, and supported free produce in Martin County.
  • Cleveland Clinic donated $2 million to food banks across Ohio, Florida and Nevada.
• Lead poisoning: Cleveland Clinic donations support the removal of lead hazards from homes and childcare centers.
• Maternal and infant health: Cleveland Clinic invested in the renovation of the Hitchcock Center for Women, a facility dedicated to recovery and family stability.
• Mental health: For all ages, access to mental healthcare is an urgent need. These services are undersized and at risk of disappearing because they are unprofitable. As the largest mental health provider in Ohio, Cleveland Clinic is committed to sustaining necessary care.
• Community benefit: Cleveland Clinic committed $1.49 billion to research, education and community programs to help improve the community’s health, support patients and advance the future of healthcare, including:
  • Medicaid shortfall: Cleveland Clinic is a leading provider of Medicaid services, covering nearly $1 billion in shortfall and financial assistance for patients annually.
  • Research and education: Innovations developed at Cleveland Clinic have saved countless lives around the world, while its academic platform – built through philanthropy and partnership – is educating clinicians and scientists.
  • Employment: Cleveland Clinic is the largest employer in Ohio, as well as in many other communities it serves. “There is no greater guarantee of health than employment at an organization with the best healthcare coverage in the country.”

“These combined efforts show that we can build a healthy community together,” he said.

Care for the organization

2025’s strong financial performance allows Cleveland Clinic to reinvest in the entirety of its mission, while also reflecting “the trust we have built with patients, the hard work of our caregivers and the stewardship of Cleveland Clinic.”

Cleveland Clinic continues to grow, employing 83,000 caregivers worldwide.

• Strategy and Enterprise Growth: “We will never stop searching for opportunities to sustain our mission,” Dr. Mihaljevic said. “Every life deserves access to the best treatments available. Cleveland Clinic will continue to grow across regions, markets and specialties.”
  • In Ohio, updates to Cole Eye are complete thanks to a transformative gift, setting the new standard for eye care and research.
  • The Neurological Building is now fully enclosed, with the first patient expected in January 2027.
  • Construction on the Innovation District will be completed in the first quarter, maintaining the health system’s position at the forefront of scientific discovery.
  • As part of the Main Campus master plan, Cleveland Clinic is committed to increasing its capacity to care for the critically ill, which includes pursuing a Level One Trauma Center designation for adults and children.
  • At Fairview Hospital, a new cancer center and medical office building is set to open in the second quarter of 2026, with a new parking garage in 2028.
  • In Avon, the Richard E. Jacobs Campus expansion is being designed, with construction to begin by the end of 2025.
  • In downtown Cleveland, the Global Peak Performance Center, in collaboration with the Cleveland Cavaliers, is set to open in August 2027.
  • In Florida, fundraising has begun for a new hospital in West Palm Beach.
  • In Las Vegas, Cleveland Clinic Concierge, a model for primary care, is expanding services.
  • Cleveland Clinic Canada is celebrating 20 years of excellence, with a move to a larger facility in November.
  • In London, construction is moving along for a new cancer center, with patient care to begin at the end of 2027.
  • Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has grown into a leading medical center for highly specialized care, with more than 1,000 robotic procedures and dozens of medical firsts in the UAE and Middle East region.
• Digital transformation: Embracing the future through AI will address important challenges by:
  • Integrating staffing, scheduling, supply chain and patient care in real time.
  • Predicting clinical risks.
  • Personalizing care for patients.
  • Automating paperwork.
  • Supporting caregivers.
  • Building a global primary care delivery platform to reach patients in parts of the world where access to contemporary care does not exist.
• Research, Education and Innovation: Cleveland Clinic made the largest research investment in its history, which doubled capacity and supports:
  • Coordinating discovery on three continents as a global team.
  • Using computational advances to unlock solutions to biological and clinical problems.
  • Doubling the number of learners in our programs since 2020, with 4 million global education encounters annually, including career tracks for professional staff to pursue their passions as clinicians, educators and translational researchers.
  • Building a fast track to educate more osteopathic doctors with Ohio University and training the next generation in quantum computing with Miami University.

In closing, Dr. Mihaljevic added, “In everything we do, Cleveland Clinic has a vision. Not only for what healthcare is, but for what it could become.”

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Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic, M.D., delivered the annual State of the Clinic address Monday, Jan. 26, 2026.