Mayo Clinic launches new healthcare delivery center
The Mayo Clinic has created the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, a new initiative that will focus on creating improved approaches to how healthcare is delivered.
“By focusing on how healthcare is delivered, we will define new models of care that increase quality, fulfill the needs of the patients and reduce costs,” said center Director Veronique Roger, MD, MPH. “We will examine precisely what determines high-value healthcare and then explore how to best apply these high-value healthcare principles, systems and practices in different settings.”
The Rochester, Minn.-based clinic has long been regarded for its ability to deliver high-quality and low cost care. With the new center in place, officials said, the clinic is developing a means by which it can design, implement, measure and disseminate high-value healthcare best practices. Initial areas of focus include wellness and the prediction, prevention and management of chronic diseases.
“This new center will allow Mayo Clinic to identify and disseminate the type of high-value healthcare delivery that patients deserve,” said Mark Hayward, the administrator of the center. “The center will harness Mayo Clinic’s century-long history of applying engineering principles to patient-centered healthcare.”
Last year, the Mayo Clinic launched The Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science at Dartmouth College. That program, intitially funded by an anonymous $35 million gift, will begin offering a Master’s degree program in healthcare delivery science this summer.
Mayo and the Dartmouth Institute have a history of research collaborations, with Dartmouth’s program already relying on data from Mayo and a number of other large provider networks.
[See also: Healthcare organizations join Dartmouth Institute in collaborative; Study puts Mayo Clinic's economic impact at $22B]
“Dartmouth brings together not only its schools of medicine, business and engineering but also the arts and sciences, undergraduate and graduate, to focus on the challenge of healthcare,” said Albert G. Mulley Jr., MD, MPP, who was named the center's director in September. “I believe the Dartmouth Center has the best potential to do what I’ve worked toward throughout my professional life: To make profound, lasting change that improves the quality and value of medical care as perceived by those who live with the health consequences.”
The Mayo center will draw upon the activities of its Minnesota, Florida and Arizona campuses and its network of clinics serving more than 70 communities throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Officials said the diversity of its operations and the patient bases at these locations will allow Mayo to study best practices for a variety of healthcare services such as primary care, diabetes care, hip replacements and ICU care.
“Healthcare in this country is at a crossroads and the next big step is to increase quality while lowering costs at the same time,” said Roger. “By focusing on new care delivery models, we can help ensure that patient-centered healthcare continues to thrive.”
