How the Mayo Clinic Improved Patient Care and Lowered Health Care Costs
ABC News
Dr. Tim Johnson and Susan Wagner
April 9, 2009
Instead of consulting with their primary care doctors, many patients in this country who need medical care wind up in the emergency room.
Even the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., which provides quality health insurance to 130,000 employees and their families, was shocked to discover how many of them approached their own routine medical care.
“We just use the urgent care and the ER for whatever our needs were,” said Cindy Hageman, a Mayo Clinic employee who works as a technician in the dialysis unit. For some Mayo employees, the reason was simple: The ER was more convenient than going through the hassle of scheduling an appointment with a primary care doctor. But it came at a huge price — both to Mayo, which was footing the bills — and to patients, who were not getting the benefits of primary care, which include regular follow-ups and good preventive medicine.
