Mayo Clinic facts for kids
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| Private | |
| Industry | Health care |
| Founded | January 27, 1864 Rochester, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Headquarters |
Rochester, Minnesota
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U.S.
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Area served
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Key people
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| Revenue |  US$16.3 billion (2022) |
| Total assets | US$20.305 billion (2021) |
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Number of employees
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76,000 |
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Mayo Clinic is a very famous medical center in the United States. It is a nonprofit organization, which means it uses its money to improve healthcare, not to make a profit for owners. It focuses on helping people, teaching new doctors, and doing research to find new treatments.
Mayo Clinic has many doctors and scientists, plus thousands of other staff members. They work at three main locations: Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; and Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona. They are known for treating very difficult health problems. People from all over the world come to Mayo Clinic for special care.
Mayo Clinic also has a top-ranked medical school, the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. It spends over $660 million each year on research. More than 3,000 full-time researchers work there.
William Worrall Mayo started a small medical practice in Rochester in 1864. His sons, Will and Charlie Mayo, later helped it grow into the Mayo Clinic we know today. Besides the main hospital in Rochester, Mayo Clinic has major centers in Arizona and Florida. In 2020, Mayo Clinic also opened a facility in central London, UK. The Mayo Clinic Health System also runs many clinics and hospitals in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
For seven years in a row, Mayo Clinic has been ranked the number one hospital in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report. It has been near the top of this list for over 35 years. It's also been named one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" by Fortune magazine many times. Mayo Clinic helps many patients from around the world. It performs a very high number of organ and blood transplants.
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How Mayo Clinic Works
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit hospital system. It has large campuses in Rochester, Minnesota; Scottsdale and Phoenix, Arizona; and Jacksonville, Florida. As of 2022, Mayo Clinic has 76,000 employees. This includes over 7,300 doctors and residents, and more than 66,000 other healthcare staff.
Mayo Clinic also partly owns and runs the Mayo Clinic Health System. This system includes over 70 hospitals and clinics across Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Mayo Clinic also operates the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. This college trains medical and other health professionals at Mayo Hospitals.
In 2020, Mayo Clinic bought a healthcare facility in central London, UK. This made it the first Mayo Clinic facility operated fully outside the U.S.
Mayo Clinic is currently led by its president and CEO, Gianrico Farrugia, M.D. The chairman of Mayo's governing board is Michael Powell.
Helping Patients
In 2022, Mayo Clinic facilities saw more than 1.3 million different patients. These patients came from all 50 U.S. states and 138 other countries.
Medical Research
Mayo Clinic researchers work to understand diseases better. They also find the best ways to treat patients. They help bring new discoveries from the lab to patient care. In 2022, about 5,500 doctors and scientists worked on research. Mayo Clinic's research funding was over $1 billion in 2022. This research led to over 9,275 articles published in medical journals.
Training Future Doctors
The Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science (MCCMS) started in 1915. It offers many programs to train healthcare professionals. These programs are part of Mayo Clinic's patient care and research activities.
MCCMS has five main schools:
- Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine trains students to become medical doctors (M.D.).
- Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education offers over 300 programs. These programs are for doctors who want to specialize in different medical fields.
- Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences trains people for 60 different health science jobs.
- Mayo Clinic School of Continuous Professional Development helps practicing medical professionals keep learning.
- Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is for students who want to do biomedical research. They can earn master's or Ph.D. degrees.
Mayo Clinic's Story
How it Began
Mayo Clinic started with the medical practice of William Worrall Mayo, M.D. He was born in England and came to the United States in 1846. He earned two medical degrees. In 1864, he opened his own medical practice in Rochester, Minnesota.
His two sons, William James Mayo (Dr. Will) and Charles Horace Mayo (Dr. Charlie), also became doctors. William joined his father's practice in 1883, and Charles joined in 1888.
A big tornado hit Rochester on August 21, 1883. It killed at least 37 people and injured over 200. Dr. Mayo was put in charge of helping the injured. He asked Mother Alfred Moes for help. She was the leader of the Sisters of Saint Francis, a group of teaching nuns.
After the tornado, Mother Alfred suggested building a hospital. The Sisters of St. Francis would raise the money. Dr. Mayo and his sons would provide the medical care. They agreed with a handshake. On September 30, 1889, Saint Mary's Hospital opened. The three Mayo doctors worked there.
Doctors Working Together
As medicine became more specialized, the Mayo brothers invited other doctors to join them. This was a new idea at the time. Instead of doctors working alone, they worked as a team. This is called a group practice.
One important doctor who joined was Henry Stanley Plummer, M.D. He was an expert in thyroid disease. He also helped organize the clinic. He created systems like the "dossier" medical record. This system allowed doctors to easily share patient information. Before this, doctors often just talked or wrote letters about patients.
Growing Across the Country
The Mayo brothers became very famous surgeons. In 1919, they and their wives gave almost all their money and property to the clinic. This made it a nonprofit organization.
After World War II, Mayo Clinic kept growing in Rochester. In 1972, the Mayo Medical School opened.
In 1986, Mayo Clinic officially joined with Saint Marys Hospital and Rochester Methodist Hospital. That same year, Mayo Clinic expanded to Florida. This happened because the Davis family donated 400 acres of land in Jacksonville. Then, in 1987, it expanded to Scottsdale, Arizona. The Phoenix, Arizona, campus opened in 1998.
In 1992, the Mayo Clinic Health System started. This was a network of community medical services in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. In 2011, Mayo Clinic launched the Mayo Clinic Care Network. This network allows other healthcare facilities to use Mayo Clinic's knowledge and experts.
In early 2020, Mayo Clinic opened a health clinic in central London. It was named Mayo Clinic Healthcare. Later that year, Mayo Clinic became the sole owner of this clinic. This was its first overseas clinic fully operated by Mayo Clinic.
Important Discoveries and Contributions
Mayo Clinic has made many important contributions to medicine and science:
- In the early 1900s, Henry Plummer created the idea of doctors working together as a group. He also developed an organized medical record system. This made it easier for doctors to share patient information.
- In 1905, Mayo Clinic developed a way to check for cancer during surgery. They could quickly examine frozen tissue to see if a patient had cancer while they were still in the operating room.
- Mayo Clinic started the first hospital-based blood bank in Rochester in 1935.
- The clinic also designed the "Mayo stand." This is a special one-legged mobile table used in operating rooms.
- In the 1930s, Mayo Clinic doctors helped create the BLB flight mask. This mask provided oxygen therapy for pilots flying at high altitudes.
- During World War II, Mayo Clinic doctors helped the U.S. Army. They researched why pilots would black out during high-speed turns. They developed the G-suit. This suit prevented blood from pooling in pilots' legs. U.S. pilots wore it at the end of World War II.
- In 1950, two Mayo Clinic doctors, Edward C. Kendall and Philip S. Hench, won the Nobel Prize in medicine. They won for discovering cortisone. This medicine helps reduce swelling and pain.
- Later in the 1950s, Mayo Clinic helped improve the heart-lung machine. This machine helps keep patients alive during heart surgery. It is now called the Mayo–Gibbon heart-lung machine.
- In 1969, Mayo Clinic doctors performed the first hip replacement surgery approved in the United States.
- In 1973, Mayo Clinic bought the first CT scanner in the U.S. This machine uses X-rays to create detailed images inside the body.
- In 2001, Mayo Clinic helped develop a fast DNA test. This test could find anthrax in people and the environment.
- The Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation was started in 2008. It has worked on over 270 projects to improve healthcare.
- In 2013, Mayo Clinic began using patient cells to try and heal heart damage. This is part of regenerative medicine.
- In 2014, Mayo Clinic worked with Apple to develop the Apple Health and HealthKit apps. These apps help people keep track of their personal health information.
- In 2018, Mayo Clinic and UCLA used spinal cord stimulation. This helped a man who was paralyzed walk again with assistance.
- As of 2023, Mayo Clinic has treated over 10,000 patients with proton beam therapy. This is a very advanced type of radiation therapy for cancer.
Buildings and Art
As Mayo Clinic grew, it needed more space. Many new buildings were added over the years. In 1914, Mayo Clinic opened the first building designed just for a multi-specialty group practice. This made it easier for patients and staff to move between different medical areas.
The 1928 Mayo Clinic building, now called the Plummer Building, is very famous. It was designed by Henry Plummer. It has beautiful bronze entry doors. Each door is 16 feet tall and weighs 4,000 pounds. These doors are closed to remember important events or people, like the deaths of the Mayo brothers.
Other important Mayo Clinic buildings include the Mayo Building (Rochester, Minnesota) (1955), Guggenheim Building (1974), and Gonda Building (2001).
Mayo Clinic also has a large art collection. They believe that art and healing are connected. You can see many famous artworks across their campuses, including pieces by Andy Warhol, Auguste Rodin, and Alexander Calder.
New Ideas and Technology
Mayo Clinic uses a lot of technology to help patients. They have adopted over 15,000 mobile devices from Apple, like the iPad and iPhone. They created an app called Synthesis Mobile. This app connects many of their health systems. Other apps help patients see their medical records or ask doctors for help.
The Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation was started in 2008. It works on new ideas to improve healthcare.
In 2019, Mayo Clinic partnered with Google for healthcare innovation and cloud computing. Google even planned to open a facility in Rochester, Minnesota for Mayo Clinic.
In 2020, Mayo Clinic launched the Advanced Care at Home Model of Care. This program helps patients get care in their own homes using virtual tools. Also in 2020, Mayo Clinic helped run a program to treat COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma.
Top Rankings
Since 2016, Mayo Clinic in Rochester has been ranked the #1 overall hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. They look at almost 5,000 hospitals. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, was ranked in the top 10 in almost all 16 medical specialties. It was the #1 hospital in 8 of the 12 data-driven specialties.
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Ranked 1st
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Ranked 2nd
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Ranked 3rd – 6th
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High-Performing
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See also
In Spanish: Clínica Mayo para niños
- Mayo Clinic Arizona
- Mayo Clinic Hospital (Rochester), Saint Marys Campus, Methodist Campus
- Mayo Clinic Florida
- Mayo Clinic Cancer Center
