CLEVELAND CLINIC CASE by ThEME

The clinic is investing $30 million in nonfinancial social assets to help individuals adopt healthier behaviors and reduce health care costs by more than 10 percent, or $1 billion in Cuyahoga County alone—a significant return for the community and a “hook” to attract future employers.

To make this Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) a reality, CWO Dr. Roizen is working to realize the clinic’s long-term goal through both internal and external initiatives. This is his passion—and his challenge is to make it everyone’s passion. Internally, 33 wellness groups have been launched (one at each clinic site) to test new ways of doing business and new investments in the wellness of employees.

The Cleveland Clinic’s funding of employee health insurance is a good example of a new way of doing business. The clinic assumes a certain fraction of employees’ health care costs provided the employees each do five things every year: get their blood pressure measured, get their waist measured, have their blood tested for TB, develop a plan for healthy living, and take one of five general health risk assessments.

The results of these social investments are beginning to be tracked. Measures include

• Percentage of employees contributing ideas, and percentage of ideas tested and institutionalized

• Adherence to programs and cause of deviations

• Percentage of population with healthier habits overall and percentage of population that shifted from unhealthy to healthy habits each quarter

• The per-capita health care cost in the county compared with Ohio as a whole

In Dr. Roizen’s words, “The realization that Cleveland Clinic has to take care of our employees and the community is gradually transforming us into a much more socially responsible organization.”