It’s been over 20 years since Mayo “purchased” Naeve Hospital and the clinics. Some doctors were skeptical of what would happen.

What is the split of losses in each town? Did this just happen in the last two years? Are other clinics losing money? Do you know how many cities in southern Minnesota have the name Mayo attached to it? There are 33 facilities, including Rochester. That’s called a monopoly. Did you know that in Minnesota we have the highest insurance premiums?

It has been stated by Mayo reps that “more than 100 jobs across the system have gone unfilled for more than a year due to lack of applicants as the nation’s rural healthcare crisis continues to impact southern Minnesota.”

What does “across the system” mean? Also stated by Mayo reps was they have had an extremely difficult time recruiting quality staff members to Austin and Albert Lea. I’ll bet they never thought of having doctors from Rochester come to either town a couple of days a week to fill the vacancies and get more patients in. They believe the consolidation will make it easier to hire. Why? If you couldn’t find quality staff members before, why should this make any difference?

Mayo said it will not consider selling the hospital in Albert Lea. Why not? If it’s such a drag on their books, then allow us to purchase the hospital and find someone else to take it over. The oncology center here had some funds donated to them to update their chemotherapy room. The planning has been going on for years. What is taking so long? Where are the funds?

In an attempt to make this whole fight sound ridiculous, Ms. Gostout said, “23 miles — not what you would choose, but c’mon folks, people are driving 23 miles to get their favorite ice cream. People are driving 23 miles to go shopping.” Really? Is this something you’d do?

Ms. Gostout also said earlier discussions with the community would have been “unnecessarily disruptive,” but she did concede that Mayo could have done a better job explaining the issues at hand, such as a 50-percent decrease of inpatient care over the last decade, and she has vowed to do better moving forward. That’s great, they’re going to do better. This decision was made on May 8 and it wasn’t really disclosed until the Minnesota Nurses Association found out and a hastily called press conference was held the next day.

Did you know that the Mayo system is spending 1.5 billion dollars on a new records system so all their clinics can look at other clinics’ records? Do you know how many new computer programs they’ve put in their clinics over the last few years? Employees are constantly having to learn new programs. Imagine what that costs.

Did you know when you call the local number for the clinic, you may not be talking to anyone here? This whole Mayo Health Systems is getting too big and too impersonal.

Kathy Diaz

Albert Lea