Outside the sparkling new November Family Health Center, MetroHealth leaders, donors and local politicians cut ribbons and toasted the future growth of Cuyahoga County's publicly-supported health system this week.
County Council President C. Ellen Connelly told the crowd that she would like to see a MetroHealth facility in "each part of the county."
"MetroHealth Missions includes providing health care to all regardless of the ability to pay and the need for MetroHealth high quality is growing. So we are pleased to support the expansion of MetroHealth here in Middleburg Heights and throughout the county," Connelly says.
Metrohealth is already planning another new health center in Brecksville. That project is slated to be as big as the 57,000 square foot Middleburg Heights center, which fully opens at the end of July.
But MetroHealth's new Chief Executive Dr. Akram Boutros says the health system won't just build new health centers. It's also planning new ways to reach out to patients.
"Our mission statement began with 'We are an academic medical center.' It began talking about us. Our new mission statement talks about the individuals we are here to serve, the individuals and the community at large," Boutros says.
Within two months, MetroHealth plans to place staff at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center to offer basic health services to employees and, eventually, people passing through. Boutros envisions placing doctors and nurses at other busy places such as corporate headquarters and high schools.
The future, he says, is to serve residents where they are and not make them come to you.