CLEVELAND -- Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic are expanding their health education collaboration to include dental and nursing students on the campus already planned for the institutions’ medical students.

The announcement comes as the university and hospital system submitted designs and renderings for the 485,000-square-foot quadrangle building to the Cleveland City Planning Commission in advance of meetings next week. The architecture firm Foster + Partners designed the Health Education Campus to stand on the same 11-acre parcel originally designated for the medical education building. It will be built on East 93rd Street between Euclid and Chester Avenues.

“Studies show that team-based health care improves patients’ experiences and results, lowers costs, and increases the job satisfaction of those involved in care,” said the president of Case Western Reserve, Barbara R. Snyder. “Yet most of our education programs still separate the professions throughout students’ academic careers. This project allows us to bring these future health care leaders together from the very start, and to do so in a thoughtful and intentional way.”

The space is expressly designed to encourage interaction among all students -- not only in classrooms, but in dining and study areas as well. The goal is for students to graduate with a deeper understanding of how these caregivers complement one another’s work  as well as appreciation for the unique roles each plays in enhanced outcomes for patients.

“Health care is in the midst of an unprecedented transformation and is changing how we deliver care to patients and how we get reimbursed for services. The focus is now on quality and outcomes for patients, while moving away from fee for services,” said Dr. Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic. “This requires a team of providers -- with a variety of expertise and experience -- working together to care for patients and why an integrated medical education program is not just important, but essential.”

Teams from the two institutions are completing estimates for the cost of the expanded project, which is now roughly 300,000 square feet larger than its original design. They also are working to determine optimal timelines for commencing and completing construction. Meanwhile, the exterior designs, streetscapes and landscaping plans will go before the Euclid Corridor Design Review Committee Dec. 4 and the planning commission Dec. 5 as part of the approval and permit process, according to the announcement

The four-story building’s academic spaces and offices "wrap around a soaring, airy atrium where students, faculty and staff can gather for meals and conversation. All of the furniture in the space is movable, so the atrium also can host large events such as lectures, convocations, banquets and the like. The structure is designed to be as energy efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. At minimum, the building will meet LEED Silver environmental building standards. In addition to Foster + Partners, local architects Westlake Reed Leskosky are involved with the project.

Case Western Reserve’s dental medicine and nursing programs together enroll just over 1,500 students, while the medical school’s M.D. tracks total nearly 1,000. The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine track enrolls 160 of these students, with the remainder in the university’s M.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. tracks. The medical school also plans to add a physician’s assistant program that will grow to enroll 100 students, all of whom also would learn on the new campus.

Collaboration within the region’s health-oriented entities has been growing steadily in recent years, according to the announcement. For example, it cites the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center -- which includes the university, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals -- that last year won an “outstanding” rating from the National Cancer Institute. Meanwhile, the Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative, which includes those three institutions as well as MetroHealth Medical Center and the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center -- has brought more than $128 million in federal grant support to the region in recent years.

Furthermore, Cleveland Clinic’s partnership with Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, continues on schedule with students set to enroll at its extension campus in 2015 at South Pointe Hospital. And last month Cleveland Clinic, Akron Children’s and MetroHealth announced an innovative pediatric partnership in which specialists at the first two hospitals will see patients at MetroHealth.

In addition, the Case Western Reserve medical school’s primary affiliation with University Hospital Case Medical Center (UHCMC) remains in place, as do its cooperative arrangements with Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals Health System, MetroHealth Medical Center and the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center. The nursing and dental school programs with UHCMC and others continue as well.

SOURCE: Cleveland Clinic.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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