Mayo Clinic's CEO: 200 million patients yearly.... #RochMN

Make sure to pick up a copy of Rochester Magazine as soon as you see one. They're going to fly off the shelves.

They're chock full of predictions for the future of Rochester, Minnesota — and some of the predictions, built upon information already made public — will get you thinking that there are local folks with big plans.

Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. John Noseworthy has told the Post-Bulletin publication that Mayo expects to create "a meaningful interaction with 200 million patients and people each year" by the year 2020.

200 million people

That's 2,000 times the population of Rochester seen by Mayo Clinic physicians, calling a Mayo nurse, getting an econsult with a specialist, getting a rare lab test through Mayo Medical Laboratories, stopping by the Mayo Clinic Gateway at the Mall of America, getting proton pencil-beam therapy in Rochester or interacting online from Dubai.

It's tough to adequately explain why Mayo's outreach statewide, nationally and internationally actually means more people will come here to Rochester rather than fewer. But I put it to you this way:

If Mayo maintains Rochester, Phoenix, Arizona and Jacksonville, Florida as destination medical centers for patients who need experts in serious, relatively rare medical conditions, and Mayo builds its patient base to 200 million people, only a tiny, tiny fraction of those patients coming to Rochester for specialty care represent a huge increase in patient flow here.

1/10 of 1 percent is 200,000 people — twice Rochester's population — so there's plenty of room for growth in the number of patients served directly in Rochester, job growth and patient service.

I dare you to run out now and get a copy of Rochester Magazine so you can be the one creating buzz in your office — there's so many fascinating predictions filling the issue that there will plenty to talk about!

Pulse on Health
By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists
Health Reporter for the PostBulletin.com, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 
Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel