MetroHealth pilots free RTA passes for employees alongside community wellness push

The MetroHealth System has emerged regionally as a pioneer in thinking as much about its patients’ health needs as their medical care.

In February, for example, the hospital system, and its partner NRP Group, broke ground on the first phase of a larger, $75-million mixed-use development along West 25th, which will include senior housing and a 12-acre park. This first development targets the need for quality affordable housing among residents living around MetroHealth’s main campus on West 25th Street. The development will feature 72 units of affordable housing and an Economic Opportunity Center that will provide job training, a demonstration kitchen for cooking healthy meals, legal counseling, and digital and financial literacy coaching to the Clark-Fulton neighborhood.

“It’s part of our mission to ensure people are healthy, not just to get them into our system when they’re sick,” according to sustainability director Sarah O’Keeffe.

MetroHealth is developing “healthy living” supports for its employees too, O’Keeffe said, most recently by subsidizing the commutes of participants in a two-pronged public transit pilot.

“Transit is a healthier form of transportation not just for the environment and public health in terms of reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, but also for the person taking it,” she said. “Studies have shown transit riders get 19 more minutes of exercise daily on average than those commuting by car.”

Continue the full story at Crain’s Cleveland.