Sharon Regional Health System and Cleveland Clinic announce clinical affiliation

Sharon Regional Health System CEO Wayne Johnston, SRHS Medical Staff President Lawrence Shaffer, M.D., and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation CEO Floyd D. Loop, M.D., today announced an affiliation to enhance clinical expertise and the delivery of health care services at both organizations. A clinical affiliation is not a merger or financial arrangement but provides a process to share health care services, medical education, clinical expertise and research opportunities.

"This affiliation is significant for all of the people we serve throughout Mercer County and the region," said Johnston. "This affiliation reinforces the direction that our leadership team has set for this institution...that by remaining a strong, independent health care organization, Sharon Regional is able to choose the 'best of the best' in developing clinical relationships and affiliations to enhance the health care services available to the communities we serve."

"Sharon Regional has continued local direction and control by managers and a board of directors who reside in Mercer County. Our priority is high quality, locally accessible medical services for the community, employees, families and friends," Johnston added. "A relationship with the Cleveland Clinic can only strengthen our abilities to provide the best quality care to our patients."

James Feeney, chairman of Sharon Regional's board of directors, recognized the honors recently bestowed on the Cleveland Clinic, having earned the number four slot on U.S. News & World Report's National Honor Roll of America's Best Hospitals.

"We're bringing the expertise of one of the top hospitals in the country to Mercer County and our patients through our affiliation with the Cleveland Clinic," stated Feeney. "We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship."

The affiliation will benefit Sharon Regional through enhanced clinical expertise, increased medical education programs, enhanced and improved accessibility of specialist physicians.

"This affiliation is an example of how hospitals can cooperate to provide better and more accessible care," said Dr. Loop. "We've noted the positive growth Sharon Regional has experienced and we look forward to working with Sharon Regional on a number of programs that could benefit both institutions."

According to Dr. Shaffer, Sharon Regional's medical staff is enthused about the affiliation. "Many physicians at Sharon Regional already have some established relationships with physicians at the Cleveland Clinic," said Dr. Shaffer. "They see the affiliation as an extension of those relationships, allowing for a greater exchange of ideas and expertise."

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, founded in 1921, integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education in a private, non-profit practice. Last year at the Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Foundation, more than 850 full-time salaried physicians representing more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties provided for 1,192,300 outpatient visits and 49,987 hospital visits from patients from throughout the U.S. and more than 80 countries around the world. With 2,957 staffed beds, the Cleveland Clinic Health System offers broad geographic coverage, a full continuum of care, improved quality and lower cost of care to northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania residents.