From Mayo to HCA, it’s a family affair
In the late 1800s, southeastern Minnesota wasn’t exactly a booming metropolis. And it certainly wasn’t what sprang to mind when people thought “medical innovation.” But today, people from all over the world are drawn to Rochester, Minn., by one simple word: Mayo. And it all started with two brothers— Drs. Charles and William Mayo— and their physician father, William Worrall Mayo.
The origins of the Mayo Clinic can be traced to a deadly tornado that struck Rochester in the late 1800s, destroying much of the town. The Mayo brothers and their father tended to the injured. Following the tragedy, the community recognized the need for a hospital, which opened in 1889 with the Mayos operating part of the facility. The hospital became the Mayo Clinic in 1915.
What drove the clinic’s growth in size, influence and reputation was the Mayo brothers’ dedication to “putting the patient first.” They were far ahead of their time in using coordinated care through pioneering efforts in multispecialty practice and promoting teamwork between caregivers and administrators. Meanwhile, one of the Mayos’ early hires, Dr. Henry Plummer, also a member of the Hall of Fame, advanced the quality of care through numerous clinical and technological innovations.
The tenets of the Mayo brothers endure. The system today has major campuses in Florida and Arizona in addition to the flagship operations in Rochester, as well as affiliations across the country.
“The north star that we always have at Mayo Clinic is asking what’s best for the patient,” said Matt Dacy, a museum director and chair of the heritage program at Mayo. “It’s a simple phrase but is actually very profound because it guides us in virtually everything that we do, whether it’s how we deploy resources, how we engage the staff and how we set priorities.” He also pointed to the strong sense of collegiality that the brothers imbued.
Dacy also notes that Mayo continues to hold annual Heritage Days events, during which staff and physicians spend a week talking about particular aspects of the brothers’ continuing legacy.
The Mayo brothers, both inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009, died within months of each other in 1939.
Another familiar health system was also formed by a family of physicians, but this time it was a father and son. Fifty years ago, Thomas Frist
Sr. and Thomas Frist Jr., along with businessman Jack Massey, formed Hospital Corporation of America in Nashville. HCA at its inception was just one hospital and a nursing home. It filed its first initial public offering a year later, establishing the Frists as trail-blazers in for-profit healthcare.
The system grew rapidly, and at one time it owned or managed more than 500 hospitals. Its history includes several trips to private ownership and back to publicly traded status, as well as an ill-fated merger in 1994 that created Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. That deal would unravel several years later following federal investigations into the company’s billing practices. Through subsequent acquisitions, divestitures and restructurings, the company has continued to dominate the sector and remains the largest investor-owned chain.
Frist Sr. was inducted into the Hall in 1990 and passed away in 1998. His son was inducted in 2003.