My wife and I were among the 700 who attended the public meeting regarding the Albert Lea hospital. We could feel an atmosphere of anger and frustration as we entered the high school auditorium. To the credit of those present, “Minnesota Nice” prevailed, and the meeting was well conducted. Bobbie Gostout did an excellent job presenting Mayo’s point of view for consolidating resources with Austin even though I disagreed with their conclusions.

Here’s my point. Our son is a physician in a northeastern Iowa town with less than 4,000 people with a hospital including the clinic. He has said that the hospital loses money annually. However, they are part of a system, similar to Mayo, which feeds the central hospital providing the services which generates the financial solvency of the system.

I am grateful for our local association with Mayo and am impressed with the care I received when life-flighted to Rochester a decade ago; but, it was very expensive! Mayo has a right to make a reasonable profit to offset the year(s) when income may fall short of what is needed.

The question I would have liked to have been answered: If Mayo is a nonprofit organization, should not the profitability of the system as a whole be take into account rather than that of the local satellite hospitals? The primary purpose of a nonprofit is to serve the community. Generating revenue is important, but secondary. The CEO of Mayo in Rochester was listed among the highest paid executives in the state according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune earlier this year. While many of us feel an executive is worth his pay; still, we find ourselves asking: “What’s wrong with this picture?”

Kenneth Jensen

Albert Lea