Since prior discussion pertaining to the Mayo clinic has been pretty one sided, with most evaluations of Mayo leaning heavily upon negativist speculation, I thought some of you might benefit from information published in the Feb 23-29 2008 edition of “The Economist” magazine. Starting on page 44
In 2006, Mayo’s revenues totalled $6.3 billion
Mayo’s Rochester campus totals 15 million sq ft, roughly twice the size of the Pentagon
Employing a staff of over 30,000 people, Mayo is Minnesota’s largest private employer
Of the 2.5 million prople to visit Rochester in 2007, 70% of them came to the Mayo Clinic for treatment. Mayo has pioneered the industry of “Healthcare tourism”
At last count, there were as many Hotel rooms in Rochester as there were in Minneapolis, despite the latter being 4 times larger than Rochester.
There is more, but I have no desire to get drawn into a whizzing match by the self declared local experts on intellectual property rights, so anyone desiring more info should read the article for themselves.
Clearly, as Minnesota’s largest private employer, an operation of Mayo’s stature is going to enjoy support at both the local as well as the state level
It is pleasing to picture the railroads as having the power and authority to ruthlessly overcome all adversaries, but I think Mayo is likely to burst that bubble. Not only do they have money and power, but they also occupy a kind of moral high ground with their medical mission. And in these days of sensitivity, no corporation wants to be branded as a bully.
Mayo may be the Largest in MN however people outside of the immediate Rochester area are getting TIRED of MAYO blocking this. I talked to my cousin up there in the Twin Cities and there is talk in the State Capital of cutting Mayos funding to get them to back off their demands and also force them to drop all lawsuits. Mayo gets over 2 Billion a year in State funding in Medicaid payments from the state take that away and they are hurting plus she works for United Health Care and they are going to Decertify Mayo as a provider unless they drop things also. See United is CP Rails UP BNSF 3M and GE healthcare insurer up in MN and all of them stand to gain if this goes thru in traffic BNSF would also since interchange would increase also for points west off the old DM&E and they know it. Combined mayo would lose 3 billion half their money do the math called the State is fighting them MN is a HUGE state and Mayo and Rochester is a small area and they have made the rest of it MAD all the Farmers wnat this the State Wants this for the JOBS of HIGH WAGES it creates. Mayo forgot they were cutting off their nose when the sharks were at their knees.
Impressive statistics, to be sure. Unfortunately, they are only a fraction when compared to the number of people who would benefit from the improvement of the railroad locally and the increased competition in the upper midwest on a regional level.
And, for all the Mayo’s high-mindedness, they still profit best when people are their sickest. They have no more moral high ground than anyone else. They are no different than Wal-Mart.
Trust me even when youa re at your sickest they are still not the best. They still told me nothing they could do for me since they could not find the spot that caused my Epilepsy yet another group in the Twin Cities without finding it got me under the best control I have ever been. Why they work Mayo relys on their REPUTATION to get patients that is all they have more and more people are waking up to that fact they are not the best anymore.
You’re right that Mayo is NOT always the best anymore…granted nobody is perfect, I have heard of more people being sicker or getting no help at all after having been at Mayo compared to other providers in the area. I hope that Mayo realizes soon that they don’t control the world and that their business will need to change just as all business’s need to either adapt to changing markets and areas or simply go away. When some one wants to expand a road no one cares about the business’s it affects when they need more land or decide to remove exits/entrances and other means of access! My [2c] worth.
Convicted One, most of the 30 percent of the other visitors to Rochester probably went there to visit the inmates at the Federal Medical Penitentiary there, there really isn’t anything else to see in Rochester.
I absolutely agree that it’s great to be well-informed.
Do you by any chance have links or url’s for THE ECONOMIST?
I myself used to know how to get into the "local paper"s news via Internet, but apparently I lost that “save.”[D)] Anybody out there who wants to give the website for the ROCHESTER WHATSIS?
That’s just great. No one seems to get bent out of shape building heavy industry near a poor urban housing development where kids play, but a multi-billion dollar business that has to hear wistles blowing, look out . . .
By the way, what the heck does intellectual property have to do with the Mayo/PRB dispute?
My middle name is Mayo and I am a direct decendent of the founders. My ancestors are spinning in there graves over the way these people have taken a clinic designed to help unfortinate people and made it a cash cow!!! Do not buy there smoke and mirrors. Uncle Pete and BarneysNSF are backing the Mayo. LESS COMPITION and we all pay higher electric prices. Stay Happy. R(MAYO)R
Funny you would word your response the way you chose. the article in question featured side by side comparisons of Mayo and the Cleveland clinic as two behemoth medical institutions that have become major players in economic revival in their respective territories.
No tag team against the railroad has been announced yet[:o)]
I’ve just read a lot of uninformed opinion here about how insignificant a player Mayo will end up being, and the actual tale of the tape tells quite another story, thought I’d share.
The part about Mayo being the largest (private) employer in the State was a real eye opener to me …they will carry a large amount of political capital due to that alone.
The Mayor of Rochester is a former Mayo employee, btw.
Come on Ed, you don’t really think that’s going to happen do you? It would immediately be spun into a contortion making it look like discrimination against the medicaid recipients themselves, and the state would have to kiss everyone’s fanny just to keep from looking biased against the downtrodden, etc…never happen.
Nothing, directly. But there are some petty members here who get bent out of shape anytime the message runs contrary to the way they would like to believe the world should be.
It would have been easier for me to simply scan the magazine article and post it as jpg images, but I suspect if I had, the intellectual property police here would have pitched a retaliatory “snit” just for the experience. So I made it a point to just extract salient tidbits and report in composition style, saving them the frustration.
I’d imagine that will be a matter of perspective. Non-binding promises and rosey eyeglass forecasts are not going to stack up evenly against the whims of the state’s largest employer.
What’s DME going to do? Offer to put in a crew change point in Rochester, thus offering 30-50 tangible new jobs to counter against the 30K+ mayo has in place?
Somehow I think “build it and they will come” might ring a little hollow, in the balance