University Hospitals Named for 10th Time as One of the World's Most Ethical Companies

CLEVELAND – University Hospitals has been recognized by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as one of the 2022 World’s Most Ethical Companies.

This is the tenth year University Hospitals has received this recognition and is one of only seven honorees in the health care providers’ category. In 2022, 136 honorees were recognized spanning 22 countries and 45 industries.

“Our goal is to establish University Hospitals as Northeast Ohio’s most trusted health care partner,” said Cliff A. Megerian, MD, FACS, University Hospitals Chief Executive Officer; Jane and Henry Meyer Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair.

“As part of this journey, we developed a roadmap to sharpen our differentiation, guide our future investments and provide a cultural foundation for lighting the way that includes relentless focus on our core values of service excellence, integrity, compassion, belonging and trust. In fact, ‘integrity’ means we have a shared commitment to do what is right and adhere to the highest standards of ethics and personal responsibility to earn the trust of our caregivers and community. In action, this means we empower our caregivers to ‘Speak-Up’ when they have a concern or ideas on how to improve the quality of care and the work environment that surrounds us. I am grateful to our more than 30,000 caregivers of character who make our health system a great place for patient care and to work.”

UH highlighted several programs to Ethisphere in order to demonstrate its commitment to integrity and social responsibility. At its core, UH promotes a culture based on values and ethics. That culture is supported by a robust compliance and ethics program committed to continuous improvement. In the recent past, UH has enhanced its enterprise risk management program, improved management of relationships of interest, and increased compliance counseling services. More recently, UH has added Compliance Champions, a new liaison program promoting compliant and ethical culture by broadening frontline resources to champion such messaging and programming, and micro-trainings, a series of short trainings on a range of topics to support informed employees empowered to follow policies and do the right thing year round.

“Today, business leaders face their greatest mandate yet to be ethical, accountable, and trusted to drive positive change,” said Ethisphere CEO, Timothy Erblich. “We continue to be inspired by the World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees and their dedication to integrity, sustainability, governance, and community. Congratulations to University Hospitals for earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies designation.”

Methodology & Scoring

Grounded in Ethisphere’s proprietary Ethics Quotient®, the World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment process includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity, and initiatives to support a strong value chain. The process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify the leading practices of organizations across industries and around the globe.

Honorees