Cleveland Clinic has established an enterprise Center for Trauma and named longtime MetroHealth trauma leader, Jeffrey Claridge, MD, to lead it as the system pursues level 1 verification for its main campus.
Dr. Claridge, who will serve as enterprise medical director, spent more than 14 years as trauma medical director at Cleveland-based MetroHealth — which has publicly opposed Cleveland Clinic’s main campus bid for a level 1 trauma center. He joined Cleveland Clinic in 2024 as a trauma and general surgeon, and as a professor of surgery at its Lerner College of Medicine, according to a July 27 news release.
If verified, the center would be the third level 1 trauma facility in Cleveland, alongside MetroHealth and University Hospitals. MetroHealth President and CEO Christine Alexander-Rager, MD, urged Cleveland Clinic to reconsider in a February letter, arguing the market’s trauma network is appropriately sized and that a third center could dilute the case volumes existing programs need to preserve clinical expertise.
Members of the Cuyahoga County state legislative delegation later pressed the system for details and urged a pause pending an independent regional needs assessment.
Cleveland Clinic’s plan
The center will provide strategic leadership and coordination across Cleveland Clinic’s existing trauma programs — a level 1 center at Akron (Ohio) General and level 2 centers at Hillcrest, Fairview and Mercy hospitals, according to the release. Cleveland Clinic said the added governance layer is to align clinical priorities; advance trauma quality, research and education; and support the system’s regional trauma leaders under unified physician leadership.
As for the system’s level 1 pursuit, the American College of Surgeons recently conducted a consultation site visit, which Cleveland Clinic said was positive. The visit was separate from the verification survey that will follow once the center begins operating on a provisional basis.
“We look forward to implementing their feedback, which will help ensure Cleveland Clinic is prepared to meet the standards for becoming a verified trauma center,” said Scott Steele, MD, president of Cleveland Clinic’s main campus submarket.
The system anticipates starting provisional level 1 operations at its main campus in the first quarter of 2028.
The July 27 release did not address volume concerns raised by MetroHealth.
“Dr. Claridge left MetroHealth on his own accord in 2024,” a MetroHealth spokesperson told Becker’s July 27, noting that Dr. Claridge was the principal investigator on a study — which used 2017 data — that indicated Cleveland and the surrounding area did not need another trauma center.
“Cleveland Clinic has repeatedly cited transfers as their justification for establishing a new level 1 trauma center. The decision to add an additional level 1 trauma center should not be made based on a single hospital’s internal needs,” the spokesperson said. “Those patients are already receiving high-quality, level 1 care. Our hope is that we can continue to collaborate with our partners across the community to strengthen the successful and effective trauma system that already exists.”
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