Mayo Clinic

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Ron Winslow, Mayo's Tricky Task: Revamp What Works; The elite clinic, renowned for success in treating complex cases, is tackling cost pressure by rethinking most aspects of its system. Wall Street Journal, July 3, 2017 (front page).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/may ... -working-1496415044
http://www.cetusnews.com/views/H ... t%E2%80%99s-Working

Quote:

(a) "Each year, some 1.3 million patients from all 50 states and 140 countries come to Mayo, * * * to better compete with rival institutions in Cleveland [Cleveland Clinic], Baltimore [Johns Hopkins], Boston [Harvard Medical School-affiliated Mass General and Brigham and Women's Hospitals] and Los Angeles.

(b) " 'While Mayo is “an American treasure,' says Donald M Berwick, former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the clinic, as with most of the US health-care system, is 'too expensive and they need to find ways to deliver the same or better care at a lower cost.'

"Mayo, with major facilities in Florida and Arizona and a community-based health system of 19 hospitals and 44 clinics within 125 miles of Rochester, [Minnesota,] has 64,000 employees. It reported $11.0 billion in revenue last year, up 6% from 2015.

"Mayo was founded as a surgical practice in Rochester in 1864 [153 years ago] by William W Mayo, a Union Army examining officer. The clinic's reputation for 'patient-centered care' was embedded in its approach long before the term became a marketing buzzword.

(c) "Today, nearly one in five surgeries involves multiple teams. 'It's nobody's case. It's Mayo's case,' Dr [John] Noseworthy[, Mayo's CEO,] says. 'That is hard to do at other places where people work in isolation.'

"Mayo physicians are salaried, so there isn’t competition over fees or any incentives to order tests and procedures a patient doesn't need, in contrast to the much more common fee-for-service medicine.

(d) Mayo "Doctors also began discharging out-of-town patients to a hotel a day or two before their flight home, then seeing them for an outpatient visit. Previously, many patients remained in the hospital until just before their flights.

"In the hospital, patients are exposed to infection or remain sedentary. 'When you get out, your activity level improves and your appetite gets better,' Dr [Joseph A] Dearani[, chief of cardiovascular surgery, ] says.

* * *  

"Carrie Mearns [name]. The 39-year-old North Carolina high-school teacher, born with a defective heart valve, had heart surgery at Mayo before and after the new protocol [which shortens hospital stay, among other things]. In 2000, after undergoing an open-heart operation to replace the [natural heart] valve [with mechanical one], she spent six days in the hospital.

"In May, the mother of two was back to have the [mechanical] device replaced [mechanical one,unlike natural one, must be replaced periodically]. The morning after her third night, her doctors decided she was progressing so well they would discharge her to a hotel that day.

" 'We were shocked,' says Ms Mearns, whose parents accompanied her. 'With open-heart surgery, you're kind of like in a little bit of disbelief.' The experience, she says, turned out 'very positive.'

Note:
(a) Regarding quotation (a). Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (is currently ranked the 5th best hospital in the United States by US News and World Report)  en.wikipedia.org
(b) There is no need to read the rest of the report, which is insignificant.