Dear Friends,
While the University Hospitals vision – Advancing the Science of Health and the Art of Compassion – defines who we are and where our momentum will take us, propelling us forward is the strength of our team. Every day many individuals at UH come together to improve and save lives.
Science is demonstrated when we leverage our team’s expertise to innovate enhancements in value or patient care. It’s exhibited by collaboration that enables a bride to smile on her wedding day after facial nerve surgery. And it’s displayed when our teams turn discoveries into medicines that improve health and provide opportunities for patients to create more memories with their families.
Compassion is the thread that ties UH together. We are bound by a common calling to care for our community. UH develops programs that improve overall care delivery so a young man after hip surgery can complete his dream of running a marathon. We establish centers of excellence that deliver affordable, high quality care. And we create a seamless patient experience that empowers consumers and enhances access to care.
Importantly, we advanced our UH mission in many areas in 2018. Noteworthy accomplishments include:
To Heal
- Creating programs, such as those at the UH Rainbow Center for Women & Children, to help enhance community health, advocacy and education
- Addressing food insecurity and chronic health conditions by launching the Food for Life Market®
- Improving care access by opening the UH North Ridgeville Health Center and expanding several emergency departments
- Taking meaningful steps toward mitigating the opioid epidemic
- Receiving over $149 million in support, the second-largest fundraising year in UH's 152-year history
To Teach
- Forming a new collaboration agreement with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine for biomedical research
- Appointing a chief academic officer to enhance UH education and research activities
- Creating education programs to address the nation's nursing shortage
To Discover
- Receiving a $9.6 million grant from the American Heart Association-Allen Initiative in Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment to lead groundbreaking research in Alzheimer's disease and other age-related dementias
- Establishing seven endowed chairs, directors and master clinicians to further support UH clinical research efforts, through the generosity of our donors
- Increasing the number of active clinical research studies by 17 percent to more than 2,100.
Furthering excellence in quality and patient experience remains our top priority. In 2018, we reinforced our commitment to be a high reliability organization, a key component of driving a high quality, safe environment for our patients.
On the following pages you will see vignettes of our vision in action. Join us as we celebrate our UH caregivers and community members who come together as a united team to make a difference in the lives of our patients.
THOMAS F. ZENTY III
CEO, University Hospitals
SANDRA PIANALTO
Chair, UH Board of Directors