From its headquarters in Minnesota, Mayo Clinic has built a reputation as one of the premier healthcare entities in the world.
The hospital system offers cutting-edge treatments for cancers both common and rare, perplexing neurological disorders and many other complex medical maladies.
Through a new partnership, Johnson County residents will have access to those resources, all without leaving their own community.
Johnson Memorial Health is joining the Mayo Clinic Care Network, a group of carefully vetted, independent health care organizations offering special access to Mayo Clinic’s knowledge and expertise. The collaboration was announced during an event Wednesday morning at the hospital.
“Over our 75-year history, JMH has achieved some amazing things, most of it through collaboration, and that’s the theme behind not only today’s announcement, but for the entire relationship with Mayo Clinic — collaboration,” said Dr. David Dunkle, president and CEO of Johnson Memorial Health, during Wednesday’s event. “Our success in terms of clinical quality and patient experience is due to the extraordinary collaboration of dedicated employees, our medical staff and our many volunteers.”
Physicians from Johnson Memorial Health can now access Mayo Clinic’s database of clinical information on hundreds of medical conditions, arrange consultations with Mayo Clinic specialists for second opinions on specific patient cases and participate in live video conferences to virtually review and discuss complex cases with teams of Mayo Clinic specialists.
Johnson Memorial Health staff will also be able to use Mayo Clinic educational materials to help educate patients and take part in professional development and continuing medical education.
“This about putting the patient first. This is an opportunity through this collaboration to enhance the level of care offered to the patients we serve, to allow them to get care close to home without having to travel, and at no additional cost to them,” Dunkle said.
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization based in Rochester, Minnesota, that has cultivated a reputation for innovative clinical practice, education and research. The group formed the Mayo Clinic Care Network to share the accumulated knowledge with other like-minded health care systems, said Dr. Mark V. Larson, medical director of the Mayo Clinic Care Network.
The network is an assembled group of 45 health organizations across the United States, Asia, Mexico and the Middle East that work together to share knowledge and resources, all connected under the umbrella of the Mayo Clinic’s expertise.
“It’s a carefully vetted, selected group of high-quality, independent health care organizations that have entered into a relationship with the Mayo Clinic to share knowledge and resources, and teams of experts,” Larson said. “It’s a clinically meaningful relationship. It’s not a merger, it’s not an acquisition. But rather an opportunity to share information to compliment the expertise that’s available locally to provide the best possible outcomes for patients.”
For Johnson Memorial Health, the opportunity to join the Mayo Clinic Care Network has been formulating over a decade. Earlier in 2022, Dunkle and other hospital leaders met with Mayo Clinic officials to discuss entering into the network.
Mayo Clinic leaders researched the health care system’s operations, culture and how they center their care. Johnson Memorial Health was impressive, Larson said.
“We really were so pleased to understand how the Johnson Memorial team approaches patient care, how they approach their mission to serve patients in this area. We’re very much culturally aligned,” he said.
Prior to Johnson Memorial Health joining, Indiana had three health care systems already in the network — Hendricks Regional Health, Hancock Health and Beacon Health.
“There are lots and lots of examples on how the collaboration has helped individual patients, helped providers augment their ability to help more patients with difficult or complex problems, and even helped organizations move forward with improving their safety, their quality, their outcome metrics,” Larson said.
Already, a handful of physicians at Johnson Memorial have been training with the different offerings of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. They’ve explored AskMayoExpert, the database of Mayo Clinic clinical information compiled by Mayo Clinic, and taken part in eConsults, that connect physicians to Mayo Clinic personnel for a second opinion.
The rest of the Johnson Memorial Health team will receive instructions on how to access those resources today, Dunkle said.
“When you think about the reputation of the Mayo Clinic, a world leader in medicine, to be able to collaborate with such a tremendous organization to share knowledge, to have access to their protocols and best practice operation and then bring that to the people we serve in Johnson County, it’s an unbelievable opportunity,” he said.
AT A GLANCE
Johnson Memorial Health-Mayo Clinic collaboration
What is it: The hospital is joining the Mayo Clinic Care Network, a group of carefully vetted, independent health care organizations, that have special access to Mayo Clinic’s knowledge and expertise. Local physicians will have access to Mayo Clinic clinical solutions and services
What will be available:
- AskMayoExpert, a program offering providers a database of concise clinical information on hundreds of medical conditions, and includes medical protocols, treatment recommendations and medical references.
- eConsults, that enable physicians to contact Mayo Clinic specialists for second opinions on specific patient cases when they believe additional input will benefit their patients.
- eBoards, or live videoconferences that enable medical teams to virtually review and discuss complex cases with a team of Mayo Clinic specialists and doctors from Mayo Clinic Care Network health systems.
- Health care consulting, which provides access to Mayo’s extensive experience, knowledge and subspecialty expertise to attain clinical, operational and business goals.
- Staff from Johnson Memorial Health can use Mayo Clinic educational materials designed for patients, and access opportunities for professional development and continuous medical education.
When does it start: Physicians will be able to access the programs and information through the network immediately.
Source: Johnson Memorial Health
