Mayo Clinic is tearing the heart out of small Minnesota towns. At 10 a.m. Thursday, nursing staff were told that in 90 days, Lutz Wing Long-Term Care facility at the Fairmont/Mayo Clinic hospital would close. Staff will lose their jobs. Many other employees at the hospital will be adversely effected. The word went out across the town.

Lutz Wing, a 50-year-old institution, will be no more. Mayo Clinic has the ability to close down institutions that don’t fit into its business plan. Lutz Wing is an amazing, 40-bed home, where families have entrusted their loved-ones for decades. It is attached right to the hospital. If one gets sick, the hospital services are next door. In the past, the founding Mayo brothers in Rochester had a motto: “The needs of the patient comes first.” I think the motto has become tiresome; overused, perhaps. “Profit over people, please” is the shiny new one, to be placed on all brochures, signage etc., beginning in 2018.

Peter Engstrom

Fairmont