Cleveland Clinic Miller Family Pavilion.

Cleveland Clinic Connected

Overview

Cleveland Clinic and Columbus Regional Health are pleased to announce an exciting program membership as Columbus Regional Health accepts the invitation to join the elite Cleveland Clinic Connected program.

Columbus Regional Health and Cleveland Clinic Connected logo.

Cleveland Clinic Connected is a robust program that provides members with access to this world-class healthcare institution’s wealth of knowledge to enhance patient experience and care, safety, and outcomes. The goal of the program is to build a global network of independent, like-minded, quality-focused organizations that have a positive impact on patient care.

History

Cleveland Clinic approached Columbus Regional Health as a potential member based on CRH’s high performance in quality and safety through publicly reported metrics. After a review period of clinical and quality measures, Cleveland Clinic extended official membership to Columbus Regional Health. Columbus Regional Health is pleased to join the program as one of two initial members in the United States and the only Indiana health system to be a part of the Cleveland Clinic Connected network.

Benefits

As a Cleveland Clinic Connected member, CRH is enabled to more rapidly accelerate the already great service line, program and initiative work, amplify patient care and experience, and more robustly support its workforce members, providers, and physicians. The two organizations worked to identify potential strategic focus areas, with the goal of sharing best practices and identifying continual improvement opportunities. Experts from Cleveland Clinic work with hospitals and health systems to ensure the highest standards of patient care delivery, enhancing operational efficiencies and supporting the professional development and education of clinical and non-clinical staff.

As part of the program, Columbus Regional Health will have access to:

  • Educational opportunities either at Cleveland Clinic or through distance learning.
  • Best practices and protocols that are used at Cleveland Clinic locations worldwide.
  • Cleveland Clinic’s continuous quality improvement and advisory services, plus education and training including clinical observership programs.

In addition, Columbus Regional Health physicians and providers will be able to request input from Cleveland Clinic subspecialists regarding complex cases and benefit from educational opportunities either at the Cleveland Clinic or through distance learning. Physicians and providers can also access best-practice protocols created by Cleveland Clinic physicians and used at Cleveland Clinic locations worldwide.

Frequently Asked Questions

The goal of the Cleveland Clinic Connected program is to bring together like-minded health systems in a structured way to share best practices. Columbus Regional Health is aligned with Cleveland Clinic in a patients-first culture, a focus on safety and quality parameters, and the values of teamwork, integrity, diversity and innovation.

No. Columbus Regional Health values its independent status and this program bolsters this status by allowing the organization to maintain local decision making but have access to world-class research, guidance, resources, education, and training.

This will allow Columbus Regional Health to grow and accelerate the already great work and care it provides, while maintaining its independence, mission, and values, thus enhancing the reputation and the quality for which it is known and trusted.

The foundation of Cleveland Clinic is safety, quality, and patient experience.  Through collaboration with Cleveland Clinic, continuous improvement, and sharing of best practices, patients have the peace of mind that as a member of Cleveland Clinic Connected their doctor and hospital places the highest emphasis on excellence in quality, patient safety and patient experience.

In addition, patients will be able to access educational health information prepared by experts at the Cleveland Clinic that give them information on their condition, treatment options and other considerations. 

The program launched in 2017, and expanded with a domestic-US component post-pandemic.

No.

Care will be provided by the local care team at the member institution. Whenever appropriate, physicians can access Cleveland Clinic doctors via Cleveland Clinic’s eClinical Review process to discuss complex cases.

CRH will also have the opportunity to participate in the many clinical educational offerings that Cleveland Clinic offers their physicians and clinicians.

Yes, but that is not the purpose of this program.  The goal of the program is to strengthen the already strong clinical care at member institutions and enable high-level collaboration between health systems. 

Jim Bickel portrait. 

"Columbus Regional Health has had a long history and tradition of forging partnerships in order to better serve our patients and our community."

— Jim Bickel, Columbus Regional Health CEO

Dr. Tommaso Falcone portrait.

"We chose Columbus Regional Health because they have strong quality and safety parameters. They have the same concept of patients-first culture that we have. The values of teamwork, integrity, diversity, innovation — those values are shared with us."

— Dr. Tommaso Falcone, Cleveland Clinic Executive Vice President and President of International and Emerging Markets

Steve Baker portrait.

"The Cleveland Clinic Connected program is geared at keeping independent hospitals independent, but also delivering world-class care to organizations and communities like Columbus Regional Health."

— Steve Baker, Columbus Regional Health President and COO