As clergy serving congregations across Greater Cleveland, we write with both urgency and care regarding the proposal by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to establish a new Level I trauma center in our city.
For more than 30 years, MetroHealth Medical Center has been a verified Level I trauma center and the backbone of trauma care in Cleveland — serving as the city’s trusted trauma expert, home to essential burn services, trauma recovery programs, and prevention initiatives that save lives every day. Trauma care in Cleveland is not simply a hospital service; it is a coordinated public health system that responds when lives hang in the balance. It touches neighborhoods most burdened by violence, accidents, and health inequity. It is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
We are not opposed to innovation or institutional growth. But we are calling for something responsible: a pause. Before implementation proceeds, the three major systems — Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth, and University Hospitals — should engage in coordinated trauma strategy planning. Trauma systems function best when they are unified, data-driven, and collaborative. Decisions of this magnitude should not unfold in isolation…