Tuesday February 4 - Rochester and the Mayo Clinic

Last night was very interesting as I shared my bed with Sizzle and Ganache. I was woken up early by a fight between the two and then there was a loud thud as they took off at a rate of knots!! Today we were to visit the Mayo Clinic, now I have heard of this and knew of some of the work carried out there but I did not realise the scale of the place. Rochester, MN, is really all about the clinic which employs 35,000 people.

On the way in we passed St Mary's Hospital which is the main hospital for the group and is actually called St Mary's Campus. It has 1,265 beds with 55 operating theatres and is also a teaching hospital.


We arrived at the main Mayo Clinic area which deals with all administration, appointments and preliminary work as well as some day
surgeries. The Mayo is involved heavily in research as well as education in terms of our health and well being. Within the general location there are a many buildings belonging to the clinic connected by the subway system or the Skyway. There are also links to many hotels, shops, restaurants and cafes through the subway. There are many other Mayo Clinic buildings scattered throughout Rochester.


We joined the tour which began with a short film about the history of the clinic. A country doctor, Dr William Mayo, came to live in Rochester and became a family doctor here. Two of his sons, William and Charles, also became doctors and returned to practice with their father. 


A devastating tornado in 1883, led to the eventual building of a hospital for Rochester. Dr William Mayo became the head of the hospital and he, together with his sons, began carrying out operations there. People were sceptical at first as hospitals were viewed as places where people died, however they had such a success rate that soon people were coming from far and wide to be treated there.


The clinic has become famous throughout the world with doctors visiting to observe operations and procedures. The Drs Mayo also travelled extensively overseas spreading the word and learning as much as possible. They signed over the clinic to a board but their approach to medicine has not changed, they have always felt that it should be a cooperative approach for the good of the patient.

The clinic officially merged with St Mary's Hospital and the Methodist Hospital some years ago although they have always worked together. Mayo clinics can also be found in Arizona and Florida but Rochester is the home of Mayo. Many people come from overseas as well as ll parts of America to be treated at the clinic. The clinic was awarded the Nobel Prize for its work in establishing the drug Cortisone in the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

After the film we went on the walking tour which lasted an hour and took us to many of the buildings some older, some newer and all of them are mostly marble inside. 

Art is a vital part of the clinic and everywhere we walked there was art on display, both on the walls, the ceilings as well as free standing. There was in fact a work of art in glass by one Dale Chihuly whose work I saw both at the Museum of Glass and the Seattle Centre.


We also saw one of the original ambulances as well as a timeline through to today of the services offered.

We then went to Rochester's oldest restaurant, Michael's, for lunch, it is definitely a high class establishment but the lunch prices are very reasonable! We then walked back to the main foyer, via the Plaza to see people starting on their Ice Sculptures. It was then back home to the kitties and washing again!! I was lucky enough to see Willow this time round and even managed a photo as well as one of Ebony!!


Today was mind blowing as I had no idea of the extent of the clinic so thanks to Joel and Connie for their hospitality and for two excellent


 



 

days in Minnisnowta!!