Ohio hospital sets 'leadership diversity' hiring quotas — partners with racial equity group to meet DEI goals after falling short of last year's target

An Ohio hospital set "leadership diversity" quotas for 2023, despite falling short of meeting last year's goal, documents obtained by the medical watchdog group Do No Harm and reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed.

The Cleveland Clinic recently partnered with OneTen, a group dedicated to "clos[ing] the opportunity gap for Black talent in America," according to the organization's website.

"OneTen's mission is to hire, promote and advance one million Black individuals who do not have a four-year degree into family-sustaining careers over the next ten years," the website reads.

The group states it takes a "skill-first approach" to "ignite potential for generations to come."

However, Do No Harm program manager Laura Morgan told the DCNF that the clinic's diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring practices could deteriorate the quality of its patient care.

"This is bad for healthcare because it places all the focus on identity and race-based criteria instead of weighing merit and achievement for all applicants," Morgan stated. "Cleveland Clinic has a reputation for world-class patient care. It needs to maintain that commitment instead of engaging in policies that promote the ideologies of the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) narrative."

Documents obtained by Do No Harm revealed that the clinic's partnership with the hiring group failed to help it meet its 2022 diversity quota, the DCNF reported.

Cleveland Clinic aspired to fulfill a 26% "diversity of new leaders" goal in 2022. Documents revealed that the clinic fell short of that threshold, securing only 15%, a significant drop from 24% in 2021.

The clinic's 2023 CEO Objectives + Key Results report revealed that it aims to hire 16% "leadership diversity" this year.

"The 2023 CEO OKRs from the Cleveland Clinic show that the organization was not successful in reaching its 2022 'Diversity of New Leaders' goal of 26%," Morgan told the DCNF. "Because the actual 2022 result was 15%, Cleveland Clinic set a very modest goal of 16% for 2023. But why is a 1% point increase good enough for an organization that has invested in initiatives like OneTen and apprenticeships to develop 'a diverse and inclusive workforce?'"

Cleveland Clinic also set 2023 DEI goals in other departments within the organization.

The clinic's chief finance officer aspires to "engage our caregivers and leaders by driving a supportive, respectful and inclusive culture." This year, the department set an 18% quota to "improve diversity of finance leadership."

The clinic's chief caregiver officer set a 16% goal for "leadership diversity (enterprise)" and 13.5% for "leadership diversity (caregiver officer)."

The OKR report also revealed that the Cleveland Clinic completed a "milestone execution" to implement a "health equity strategy." Additionally, the clinic seeks to "develop DEI OKR initiatives with unconscious bias and inclusive language team training."

The document noted that the Clinic Transformation department aims to have all its employees in 2023 "participating in leadership development supporting engagement, performance management and diversity and inclusion."

The Cleveland Clinic did not respond to a request for comment, the DCNF reported.

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