“Patient focus has always been at the heart of Mayo Clinic,” says Hugh Smith, MD, chair of the Board of Governors, Mayo Clinic Rochester. “These facilities will help us make a visit to Mayo Clinic simpler, friendlier, quicker, easier and more efficient for our patients.”
The heart of the project is the new Gonda Building (designed by Ellerbe Becket and Cesar Pelli & Associates), which brings together clinic and hospital services to make more efficient use of patient time. The subway and lobby levels open in October. Preoperative examination and electrocardiography are located in the subway; Admissions and Business Serves and the Mayo Clinic Cancer Education Center are located in the lobby. As additional floors open, there will be more disease-specific patient care centers including the Neuroscience Center and the Cancer Center. Subsequent floors will open beginning in the spring of 2002.
The new projects, financed in large part by philanthropy, add more than 1.5 million sq.ft. (135,000 m2) to the downtown campus and create the largest interconnected clinical facility of its kind in the world. This is the first major construction for specialty patient care at Mayo Clinic in Rochester since the Mayo Building was built in the 1950s and expanded a decade later.
“It’s exciting because we’re going to be able to care for our patients at a whole new level of performance,” says Dr. Smith. “For example, the physician caring for a woman in the Breast Clinic will be able to go next door to where the mammogram is being done and go over the actual images with the radiologist, whose expertise it is to read those images. She won’t have to wait overnight for mammography test results that can cause worry. We’ll have the answer that afternoon. Precision, efficiency and peace-of-mind will come from interactions such as these. Ultimately, patients benefit.”
Mayo expects to expand its medical practice, adding up to 100 physicians and up to 1,000 allied health staff during the next three to five years, depending upon the needs of the practice.
“Patient demand for appointments led us to undertake this project,” says Kerry Olsen, MD, chair of the Practice Integration Work Group planning the new facilities. “We are grateful for the continued confidence that our patients place in us.”
The new buildings contain exam rooms, procedure rooms, operating rooms, hospital rooms and area for educational and clinical research activities – all under one roof.
“Our new space is flexible and can be reconfigured as new procedures and technologies are developed,” Dr. Olsen says. “The buildings have been designed to accommodate evolving technologies and biomedical discoveries. That’s what makes these facilities ready to support the next 100 years of medical advances.”
The total cost of the projects is U.S. $441 million, nearly half of which has been given or pledged by Mayo Clinic benefactors. Gifts support the full spectrum of activities including construction, research, education, art and amenities.
“Every gift to Mayo Foundation is important and appreciated,” says Dr. Smith. “Philanthropic and government support remain key for Mayo Clinic to continue serving patients. With the continued support of our patients and friends, we look forward to our future with confidence.”
An innovator since its founding in 1909, Ellerbe Becket is a leader in architecture, engineering and the construction industry with office locations worldwide.
