Cleveland ambulances aren’t taking as many trips between the Cuyahoga County Jail and the MetroHealth System.
MetroHealth staff provide medical care inside the jail. However, it’s not uncommon for Cleveland EMS to transport people to the hospital’s main campus for emergencies.
It costs the county money and ties up sheriff’s deputies and ambulances. Signal Cleveland took a closer look at the phenomenon last year. Chest pains, general sickness and pregnancy were some of the top conditions that sent people from the jail to Metro.
After increasing for years, the number of jail-Metro trips declined in 2025. There were 1,164 transports in 2024. That number fell to 895 last year, even as the jail population ticked up. In the first nine months of this year, there were 528 trips.
MetroHealth shared those numbers with Cuyahoga County Council last week. Council approved a $92 million, three-year contract extension with MetroHealth to continue working in the jail.
The hospital system was hesitant to speculate about the reasons for the decline. A spokesperson wrote to Weekly Chatter that the number of transports varies depending on what patients need.
MetroHealth is boosting service under the new contract. Staffing is slated to go up from 105 to 122. Either a nurse practitioner or a physician will also work nights and weekends. But overnight coverage won’t eliminate the need for hospital runs, Chief Operating Officer Dr. R. Douglas Bruce told council.
“We’re working actively in that space to try and make sure that people who need medical escalation are taken out [of the jail], but only those individuals that require it,” he said.
