The physician leadership of MetroHealth wrote the following letter to the community and placed it as an advertisement in The Plain Dealer on Sunday, August 14. This message was paid for by personal funds from these physicians and other personal contributions.

From the physician leaders at MetroHealth
to the community we are proud to serve:

We care about MetroHealth.

We choose to practice at MetroHealth because we firmly believe in its vital mission of providing outstanding health care to all the people of Cuyahoga County. We are extremely proud that MetroHealth was recently honored for being in the top 1% of hospitals nationwide for the quality and efficiency of our care. We are humbled to be part of a team of 6,500 professionals and staff who strive to treat every patient every day with kindness, respect and compassion. As MetroHealth doctors, we are committed to making this high-quality, efficient and compassionate care accessible to all without regard to how you pay for your health care.

We are very proud of the financial comeback of MetroHealth. Over the past three years, our management team has worked with us to reduce costs, increase efficiency, optimize quality and improve access, resulting in a dramatic financial turnaround. These efforts have put MetroHealth in the black after losing money for seven of the previous 10 years. Our improved financial health places us in a much stronger position to continue to meet our mission and to serve our community.

We deeply appreciate the $36 million dollars provided to MetroHealth by the citizens of Cuyahoga County. This subsidy helps us pay for part of the almost $120 million of care we will provide in 2011 to county residents who are unable to pay for their care.

We give the county good value for its support. In 2010, we delivered 200,000 visits to uninsured county residents, up 25% from 2008. County support represents only about 5% of our total revenue, well below the national average for public hospitals. That is why sound management is critical to our mission and to our community. A well run MetroHealth reduces the need for taxpayer support and saves county resources in these difficult times.

We need your support. The future holds real challenges. Health care reform looms. Economic hard times swell the ranks of the uninsured. MetroHealth’s future in this rapidly changing health care environment must not be undermined.

The physicians at MetroHealth are committed to meeting these challenges. We are working to become even more efficient, striving for even higher quality of care and becoming more accessible to the many communities we serve. We promise to be ready for whatever the future brings.

We believe in MetroHealth.