Our History, Your Future

MetroHealth is the oldest Hospital in Cleveland and was at the forefront of medical education. Founded in 1837, as the City Infirmary and eventually the City Hospital of Cleveland, MetroHealth has grown and evolved alongside Cleveland and the health needs of the community.

By the turn of the century the hospital served as a training ground for both nurses and physicians. The formal affiliation that exists today between MetroHealth and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (previously known as Western Reserve University) dates back to 1914.

This partnership fostered an academic culture of teaching, research, and medical advancement. During this time, the surgery department was headed by several distinguished surgeons in the Cleveland community who also served as clinical professors at WRU School of Medicine.

In 1950, Dr. Joseph Wearn was appointed Dean of the Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He had a vision for medical education and updated the curriculum to integrate basic science with clinical practice so that medicine was studied as one collective field rather than independent specialties.

Dr. Wearn also saw the potential for City Hospital as a full-time teaching hospital for the Medical School. Dr. Wearn recruited Dr. Charles Rammelkamp (Department of Medicine), Dr. Fredrick Robbins (Department Pediatrics), and Dr. Fiorindo Simeone (Department of Surgery and OBGYN) to develop their departments as part of the WRU Medical School with residencies at City Hospital. 

City Hospital was sold to Cuyahoga County in 1958 for $1.00 and it became Metropolitan General Hospital. Its new status allowed it to seek the financial support of taxpayers through a series of levies. The funds permitted the hospital to continue to expand in both size and scope. 

Dr. Simeone departed Metro in 1964 and Dr. William Holden, Chair of Surgery at University Hospitals, became interim director of surgery at Metropolitan General Hospital. He was so impressed by our resident education that he combined the two programs in 1969, and they remained as such until 2021. 

We are excited about this new chapter in our history as our highly skilled surgical faculty extend their robust and diverse knowledge and support to incoming residents. 

It is an Exciting Time to be at MetroHealth

The MetroHealth Glick Center 
MetroHealth has completed construction on a new hospital, The MetroHealth Glick Center, and a reimagined main campus. The new 11-floor hospital is LEED certified, and the campus sits in the first EcoDistrict anchored by a health care system in the U.S. 

Institute for H.O.P.E.™
Improving the health of the community is the core of MetroHealth’s mission. Part of that means continuing to deliver excellent medical care across the continuum of care – primary care, specialty medical and surgical care, hospital care and, when needed, life-saving interventions – all empowered by the latest technology and enhanced by our expertise in population health, managed care and quality improvement.

But we must also expand the reach of our care. We need to see the full picture of our patients and their lives, beyond our walls, so we can identify and help eliminate potential barriers to their health and well-being. We must find and fix the root causes of health disparities in our region. 

That’s why MetroHealth's Population Health Innovation Institute created and launched the Institute for H.O.P.E.™, to help improve health through opportunity, partnership and empowerment.