Is it a Destination or a Theme Park?

The Mayo’s Destination Medical Center appears to be a done deal.  Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars will transform Rochester into a gilded city worthy of hosting a gold standard of health care in the world, but something’s missing from all the talk – patients.

We know a little about what Rochester could look like, but it’s a lot more than we know what the Mayo could look like.  Rochester is slated to build new bridges, hotels, streets, and even a high-speed train from Minneapolis.   The DMC will create the optimal experience for patients and their families with world-class amenities to match their level of care.  That means hotels, restaurants, where patients and/or their families could enjoy lavish accommodations and entertainment while getting better.

In fact, both Minnesota Public Radio and the Rochester Post-Bulletin have reported that for more than two years, DMC was a top-secret project.  No one in the newspaper’s newsroom had even heard of the DMC, even though the P-B’s publisher was in on some of the meetings.  Evidently, a contract of confidentiality had to be signed just to be in the meeting.

The Mayo even agreed on a logo for the DMC after putting the design out to competitive bid in April, 2010-more than two years before the DMC project became public knowledge.

The Mayo has only hinted, for example, that a new $100 m tower at St. Mary’s hospital is probably first to be built as it can dovetail from a current construction project.  What kind of care will be available in this tower, we don’t know.  The Mayo receives more than $100 million in competitive peer review grants into cancer research alone, but the public amenities seem more open to discussion than any cutting edge technology.

By contrast, the Cleveland Clinic’s medical campus extols the innovation alley that’s being created to foster new technology that will bring better care to new patients.

The Mayo says 30,000-40,000 people will be hired over the next 20 years to create a world-class medical campus to compete with the Cleveland Clinics and the Johns Hopkinses of the world.  There’s no talk of whether any of those new workers will be doctors and nurses or valets and food servers.  It appears that patient satisfaction surveys have become more important than the patient outcomes and that marketing has become more marketing than medicine.

The Mayo could be a Destination Medical Center by ensuring that enough nurses and staff are hired to safely care for serious patients and promote better outcomes.  The Mayo could be a destination for innovative care by seeking out the toughest cases the medical world sees and solving those cases, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay.

There are other questions too.  Such as, will these “new” buildings include current union employees? And will agreements be in place to assure labor peace before construction begins?

But the biggest question remains, will patients make Rochester a destination without knowing what level of care they’ll receive?

Mankato Nurses Way Ahead in Organizing

First MAT training for Mankato nurses=full house

Next time, they’ll rent a bigger room.  Maybe a movie theater.

More than 60 nurses from the Mayo Clinic Health System-Mankato showed up for trainings and organizing planning meetings to prepare for negotiations with management later this month.

Nurses showed up over two days to sign upwork with groups of 10 nurses to gather input and organize actions in the lead up to their upcoming contract negotiations through Member Action Teams (MAT).

MAT members will also be a voice of their colleagues upwards through the bargaining team so those at the table understand what’s most important for nurses in their next contract.   Nurses are driven by staffing shortages that threaten patient safety and continues to be a major issue.  Some have received more than five texts a day to pick up shifts.

“I go out and touch base with members, and they contact me,” said David Nachreiner, bargaining team chair,  “it’s an absolutely united group that’s bringing concerns to the meetings.  We all care about patient safety.”

Kris Stenzel talks to a full house.

Nurses mapped the entire hospital up floor-by-floor to ensure that no part of the bargaining unit would be left out of important bargaining news or events or would be susceptible to bad information from rumor or management misinformation.  They’ve also created a unit website that contains specific contract language and a link to email the entire bargaining unit with questions about their major issues.

“We want a safe work environment.  We want enough staff members to be able to do the job that has to be done, which is taking care of patients and to do it safely,” Nachreiner said.

They also made plans for events over the summer to show support for one another at the bargaining team during negotiations, including a family day at the Mankato Moon Dogs.  So far, six negotiating dates have been scheduled.

“We’re prepared to stand together,” Nachreiner said.

Serious talk by Mankato nurses about unsafe staffing situation

Open letter to Mayo’s Government Relations Chair

Kathleen M. Harrington Mayo
Government Relations, Chair 200 First Street SW Rochester, MN 55905

Dear Ms. Harrington:

Thank you for bringing your Operations staff to meet with leaders from SEIU and UNITE HERE last Friday to discuss the Mayo Destination Medical Center (DMC) and the related legislative proposal. While we have significant concerns and unanswered questions, we are excited about the possibility of significant job growth in the health care and hospitality sectors.

We look forward to meeting again in the very near future and to discussing specific proposals about the future DMC workforce and how collective bargaining can ensure these are quality jobs. We feel that, along with the Minnesota Nurses Association, we can reach an agreement that will preserve Mayo’s competitive status and promote living wage jobs.

In particular we suggest you examine the following ideas as a basis for further conversation:
• Codifying what part of the future workforce would consist of expanded operations at Mayo Methodist and St. Mary’s hospitals which would be subject to accretion under the existing SEIU HCMN contract.
• A private neutrality and chard-check agreement with SEIU HCMN and MNA for some portion of Mayo’s new or existing healthcare workforce.

• Assurances that any union hospitality facility demolished or restructured in the DMC zone would remain union.
• A commitment that new hospitality facilities (employing workers under NAICS Code 721100) would be required to have a labor peace agreement in place prior to construction.

Precisely because the DMC proposal will have a tremendous impact, either for good or bad, on workers in the Rochester area, we need to get clear information from you before the bill moves forward in the legislature. Therefore we will send the attached letter to legislative leaders. It urges them to refrain from moving the bill forward until our questions have been answered.

On behalf of UNITE HERE Minnesota, MNA, and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota we hope that we can reach an agreement quickly and then work jointly to pass this bill.

Sincerely yours,

Nancy Goldman, President UNITE HERE, Local 17

Jamie Gulley, President SEIU Healthcare Minnesota

Linda Hamilton, RN, President Minnesota Nurses Association

Walt Frederickson, Executive Director Minnesota Nurses Association

Mayo Needs to Answer Key Questions About Destination Medical Center

On February 7, 2013, bills were introduced in the Minnesota Legislature to request more than a half billion dollars of state assistance to the Destination Medical Center (DMC) plans drafted by Mayo Clinic and Mayo Health System. This plan lacks transparency and failed to involve key stakeholders or affected communities in and around Rochester and the state of Minnesota. February 7 was the first time most people even knew there was a plan, much less what it contained. It is very clear that as things stand there are too many unanswered questions about DMC to justify support for the project.

Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), UNITE HERE Minnesota and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota represent three of the largest stakeholders affected by the proposed DMC. Representing nearly 50,000 families in the health care and hospitality industry in Minnesota, we are left with no choice but to OPPOSE the DMC plan until Mayo Clinic and Mayo Health System engage the community and all stakeholders to develop a DMC proposal they all understand and can support. Furthermore, we ask the legislature to withhold support for the DMC until Mayo answers key questions about the impact this proposal will have on our jobs, our homes and our communities.

1. What projects does the DMC envision building and where will they be located?

2. What jobs will be created and what do they look like; will they be union jobs or low paying jobs without benefits?

3. What is the impact on other health care and hospitality employers in the state of Minnesota?

4. Why does the DMC want authority to over-ride local government planning decisions and why should the state grant DMC the powers of eminent domain over our homes?

5. What is Mayo’s commitment to the state and low income patients in return for this tax payer money? How much charity care will be guaranteed in exchange for the state’s commitment to this project? Will Mayo be included as a provider in all health plans throughout the state?

6. Will recipients of this investment commit to labor peace agreements with the workers and the unions that represent them?

7. What will be the impact on our school districts and the impact on property taxes if tax-paying businesses are removed to make way for expanded non-profit (non-taxed) institutions?

The Minnesota Nurses Association unites 20,000 nurses in Minnesota’s Healthcare Industry, UniteHERE unites 6,000 workers in Minnesota’s Hospitality Industry and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota unites 17,000 workers in Minnesota’s Healthcare Industry, including more than 2,000 workers at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

PDF copy of letter: 130312_Mayo letter