FROM CRAIN'S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Cleveland Clinic plans updating of Lakewood Hospital

By SHANNON MORTLAND

10:23 am, January 30, 2009

The Cleveland Clinic has committed to spending at least $28 million to renovate Lakewood Hospital over the next five years under a plan called Vision for Tomorrow.

The plan is a multiyear project that aims to transform 102-year-old Lakewood Hospital into one that mirrors the Clinic’s newer hospitals, said Fred DeGrandis, president and CEO of the Clinic’s regional hospitals. The project could cost up to $50 million, noted Lakewood mayor Edward Fitzgerald. Clinic officials would not confirm that figure.

The cornerstone of the plan is to transform 200 hospital rooms into private patient rooms that will enable families and friends to visit patients in a more intimate and comfortable setting, Mr. DeGrandis said.

“The conversion to private rooms is really the centerpiece of this project,” he said. “It serves the patient in a much better environment.”

Much of the medical equipment now used in hospital rooms also will be moved to cabinets that will be inside the walls, so it’s not sitting out near the beds, Mr. DeGrandis said. The Clinic has been designing the rooms in its new buildings to be cleaner and more spacious by hiding the equipment.

The rooms also will be equipped to handle new technology, and wireless services will be made available throughout the hospital, he said.

Hospital to feature centers of excellence

Parts of the hospital will be redesigned to provide more outpatient care. The hospital also plans to forge more partnerships with community organizations on wellness programs, strengthen management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, and better align Cleveland Clinic services and community doctors with the hospital.

Centers of excellence in geriatrics, orthopedics, neurological services and diabetes/endocrine also will be created at Lakewood Hospital.

The services offered at the hospital will be better tailored to the needs of residents in Lakewood and the surrounding communities, Mr. DeGrandis said. The hospital primarily serves Lakewood, Cleveland, Rocky River, Bay Village and Lorain — a geographic area with an aging population and a high incidence of diabetes.

“Diabetes is to the point where there really is immediate intervention needed,” he said.

Mayor Fitzgerald said the city of Lakewood looks forward to expanding its effort to work with the hospital on community wellness initiatives. Under the Healthy Lakewood Partnership, the Clinic’s Dr. Michael Roizen recently held an open talk on nutrition, which was attended by about 600 local residents, he said.

The Clinic also is involved in a pilot project at a Lakewood elementary school in which it is exploring the links between nutrition and student performance. The city hopes to offer more such programs, the mayor said.

The Vision for Tomorrow plan will take place over the next several years. While some projects are still in the planning stages, those slated for 2009 include beginning the transition to private rooms, creating an eight-bed unit for acute care for the elderly, enhancing the endovascular suite, improving the parking garage and installing new heating and cooling systems.