Cleveland

Health Care

Cleveland is home to some of the finest medical facilities in the country, including the Cleveland Clinic (which pioneered open heart surgery and organ transplants), University Hospitals (affiliated with Case Western Reserve University), St. Vincent Charity Hospital (pioneered development of heart-lung machines), and Metropolitan General Hospital (specializing in burn treatment). The health care industry employs 125,000 workers (11 percent of the workforce) and generates $9 billion for the local economy. The Cleveland area has 9,000 physicians and 22,000 professional health care workers.

The city of Cleveland's Department of Public Health employs 320 people and has an operating budget of $24 million. In 1995, the department provided flu shots to 2,500 senior citizens, tested 5,000 adults for HIV/AIDS, screened 42,855 children for lead poisoning, and increased the number of patients served at health centers from 23,728 to 36,938. The infant mortality rate in inner-city neighborhoods served by the Department was 16.3 per 1,000 live births in 1993.