Tracy Carter, system director of government relations for Summa Health A decade ago, Cleveland had one of the nation’s highest rates of childhood lead poisoning, despite spending years trying to solve the problem. And as Cleveland residents watched the Flint, Mich., water crisis explode, hospital executives and other stakeholders in Cleveland were spurred to work together to get local laws passed before their own crisis worsened. MetroHealth, University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and the City of Cleveland Department of Public Health joined forces with Environmental Health Watch, a not-for-profit that for decades had worked on lead abatement in Cleveland.