Thanks to donor support, the Cleveland Clinic’s institute for eye and vision problems went from a hole in the ground to one of the top programs in the country in only about 15 years. That kind of meteoric rise is unusual in the medical world. But success can also cause problems. Board member Jeffrey Cole (who ran one of the world’s largest companies selling eyeglasses) discovered that the vision clinic had reached the capacity of its building, and thus could no longer accept more patients, or expand into additional areas of research. So he provided $31 million to fund a new building that will provide needed space. As the plans for the building began in 2017, the eye institute had a staff of 100 physicians and researchers who carried out more than a quarter-million patient visits and 13,000 annual surgeries.
- Cleveland Clinic announcement, newsroom.clevelandclinic.org/2016/11/29/jeffrey-patricia-cole-donate-31-million-cleveland-clinic-cole-eye-institute/