The northeast Ohio natives had the philanthropic power to make an impact, but as self-described contrarians, the couple looked to give where others didn’t — and where their values and roots aligned.
As the founder of Dots, Bob had created a national apparel chain focusing on affordable clothing for women especially in urban areas. JoAnn, an RN who practiced at inner-city hospitals, had seen community healthcare up close. Her mother was a nurse, and her father was a doctor who refused to practice at a hospital that didn’t accept Black patients.
“Like Hamilton — one last shot — we wanted to be sure the money was spent to do good, and we wanted to know there was an ROI on our investment, that people would really benefit from it,” Bob Glick said.
They set their sights on MetroHealth. The safety-net health system in Cleveland has been focused on providing access, equity and healthcare to all since it was founded in 1837 and is revolutionizing care through groundbreaking initiatives to address disparities, serve its diverse population and keep patients healthy.
“The caregivers in this institution go far beyond any other healthcare institution because they’re concerned not only about your medical need, but do you have food? Do you have shelter? Are you being abused? Do you have transportation to work? All of the social determinants of health,” Bob Glick said.
At the core of the system’s model is understanding social drivers of health — the multitude of factors that influence health outcomes such as socioeconomic status, access to education, housing, transportation and more. Rather than simply treating patients’ immediate medical needs, MetroHealth takes a holistic view of healthcare, aiming to empower individuals and communities to achieve long-term well-being.
“We’re going beyond … to look at all the social drivers of health that are impacting their care,” said Rita Andolsen, MetroHealth’s executive director, philanthropy communications. “And I think we’re doing it in a unique way with a lot of different programs that are really getting at the heart of the health of the community, and in the process, we’re putting together a model that we strongly believe has national implications.”
A few words from our consultants who served MetroHealth.
Read more
That model uses a 360-degree approach to include the environment, education, jobs, as well as transportation assistance programs to help patients reach medical appointments, housing support services to address housing instability’s impact on health, and nutrition programs to combat food insecurity. The hospital system also generates valuable research insights on the root causes of disparities through its Center for Reducing Health Disparities, sharing its findings with healthcare professionals, policymakers, and communities nationwide. And that’s just a slice of what it does.
As a catalyst for change, MetroHealth has fueled a nationwide movement toward equitable care, and its efforts are poised to shape the future of healthcare delivery, ensuring that every individual, regardless of their background or circumstances, has access to the quality care they deserve.
“I think, what drives this organization, and what drives people who work here is just doing the right thing,” said Kate Brown, chief development officer at MetroHealth.
Before the Glicks made their $42 million gift, which is the largest in MetroHealth history and believed to be the third largest gift from individuals to a public hospital in the U.S., they explored what life was like inside one of the largest hospital systems in Cleveland.
“So immediately you have this eastside couple who’ve invested on the west side in the public hospital in such a substantial way they turned heads,” Kate Brown said. “They cause people to pause and think about the organization, and we are absolutely seeing the ripple effect of that.”
“The caregivers in this institution go far beyond any other healthcare institution because they’re concerned not only about your medical need, but do you have food? Do you have shelter? Are you being abused? Do you have transportation to work? All of the social drivers of health,” Bob Glick said.
He said when the couple walked the halls of MetroHealth, they found they could stop “10 people randomly going in the hallway, and they will have been there an average of 15 to 20 years,” Bob Glick said. And the couple, who also gave a test gift to the hospital system’s bilingual efforts on autism, said they also were impressed with the way MetroHealth came to the forefront to lead during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To me it is a vital part of the community,” JoAnn Glick said. “Cleveland would not survive without it. I really feel that way. But when we go there, it is like family … you walk in there, everybody is friendly. It just feels right; the caregivers, their approach, their outcomes; we were fortunate to be able to get to know them and to be able to make this gift.”
The Glicks’ support creates and funds the JoAnn and Bob Glick Fund for Healthy Communities to support the health of Greater Cleveland with a focus on women and children and the JoAnn Zlotnick Glick Endowed Fund in Community Health Nursing that also supports a professorship in the Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, where JoAnn received her MSN in community health nursing.
But the Glicks had another reason to give to MetroHealth — hoping to inspire others to think outside the box, have direct impact on people’s lives and influence change in healthcare.
“If we don’t make our most vulnerable residents successful in a community, we don’t have a healthy community,” JoAnn Glick said. “We hope our gift inspires other gifts, not just locally, but on a national basis.”
That gravitational pull has since elevated the philanthropic profile of MetroHealth “tenfold,” Brown said, in an east-west city where philanthropic dollars may not cross paths very often.
“So immediately you have this eastside couple who’ve invested on the west side in the public hospital in such a substantial way they turned heads,” Brown said. “They cause people to pause and think about the organization, and we are absolutely seeing the ripple effect of that.”
On the heels of the Glicks’ gift and a new hospital building named in their honor, MetroHealth is embarking on an exciting future with its new CEO, Dr. Airica Steed, a fourth-generation nurse who has a bold vision for health equity and eliminating a mortality-rate gap across Cleveland, where certain neighborhoods significantly outpace others on mortality rates. Steed is the first woman CEO, the first Black CEO and the first nurse CEO of the oldest health system in Cleveland.
“I just want to leave the world a better place than it was when I came into it,” JoAnn Glick said. “That we can do a little piece of that through Metro is as rewarding as it could be.”
Coupled with the nation’s first-ever high school embedded in a hospital and certification as the first hospital-anchored EcoDistrict — MetroHealth will continue to build on its growing national reputation for innovation and leadership on healthy communities.
And although the Glicks say they’re not done yet, they have their own personal goal:
“I just want to leave the world a better place than it was when I came into it,” JoAnn Glick said. “That we can do a little piece of that through Metro is as rewarding as it could be.”