March 16, 2022 – Lee Health has entered an affiliation agreement with Cleveland Clinic and is now an alliance member of Cleveland Clinic’s Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute, uniting Southwest Florida’s leading health care provider with the top-ranked cardiac program in the U.S. to elevate patient care in Southwest Florida.
This latest announcement follows the previously established strategic alliance between Cleveland Clinic and Lee Health in November 2020 to enhance and improve care in Southwest Florida by exploring opportunities for service line affiliations and strategic initiatives to improve quality and efficiency of care through clinical and operational enhancements.
The strategic alliance agreement established a framework for how the two health systems work together to assess opportunities to share best practices and enhance existing clinical or operational projects or establish new ones.
Lee Health has a long history of excellence in cardiac care, with HealthPark Medical Center having been recognized multiple times as one of the Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospitals in the country by IBM Watson. HealthPark Medical Center is the only hospital in Florida to receive this recognition for four consecutive years.
The Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute is one of the world’s largest, most experienced cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgery programs. Cleveland Clinic has been ranked the No. 1 hospital in the country for cardiology and cardiac surgery for 27 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report. The alliance with Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute will allow Lee Health to continue to advance excellence in care for heart patients in the region.
This alliance through a new affiliation agreement with Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute makes Lee Health the exclusive Cleveland Clinic heart alliance member in Southwest Florida. It allows for the sharing of best practices, enhancing opportunities to provide new treatments and therapies to patients, as well as exploring cutting-edge technologies and techniques in cardiovascular care that will accelerate advances in treatments.