Cleveland Clinic: The Future of Healthcare Since 1921

A century ago today, four visionary physicians opened a hospital like no other. Frank Bunts, M.D., George Crile Sr., M.D., William Lower, M.D., and John Phillips, M.D., founded Cleveland Clinic in 1921 as a multi-specialty group practice.

This then-novel concept organized the hospital to allow doctors to work as a team to best serve each patient’s needs. And they would be paid salaries, rather than being compensated based on the amount of business they brought to the hospital.

Our founders’ vision went beyond medical care to incorporate education of caregivers and research into patients’ conditions.

We continue to follow their vision 100 years later.

Cleveland Clinic opened on Feb. 26, 1921, with 13 staff physicians in a four-story building at the corner of Euclid Avenue and E. 93rd Street. From those humble beginnings, we are now one of the most recognized health systems in the world with 70,000 caregivers worldwide and locations in northeast Ohio, southeast Florida, Las Vegas, Toronto, Abu Dhabi and London.

Along the way, we have helped change the course of medicine, introducing many medical firsts including: the first coronary angiography in 1958, the first coronary bypass surgery in 1967, the first minimally invasive aortic heart valve surgery in 1996, and the nation’s first near-total face transplant in 2008, to name just a few.

There have been many challenges, of course, none more formidable than the 1929 fire, in which 123 patients, visitors and caregivers died. In an example of the institution’s resilience, Cleveland Clinic resumed operations just five days after the disaster.

Our identity as a beacon of hope has always shined brightest in uncertain times. What began in a military hospital during World War I has led generations of caregivers to provide innovative medical care in our community and around the world. Now, 100 years later, Cleveland Clinic is shining brighter than ever before. This hope lights our way forward into the next 100 years.