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agriculture & industry • community • faith & charities Education • down through the years • family & home business & health • life • neighbors • people A PUBLICATION OF THE ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE • FEBRUARY 2014
Eric Johnson
Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin CEO Dr. Mark Ciota sits in an examination room of the Austin hospital expansion. Ciota has been in the mix as changes and improvements sweep over the two hospitals and looks forward to what may be coming down the stretch.
Racing toward preventative care
CEO Dr. Mark Ciota is leading 2 hospitals during a transition By Adam Harringa
adam.harringa@austindailyherald.com
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r. Mark Ciota loves NASCAR, but he has never been to a race. He attended an Indianapolis 500 race once, but after working 90 to 100 hours a week, he has little time to watch the sport on TV, let alone take a crosscountry trip to an auto-racing event. But as the CEO of Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin, and as an orthopedic surgeon in Albert Lea, he is perfectly fine with that. He’s too busy guiding the local medical center through one of the
most transformative periods in the country’s recent medical history. Ciota started with the Mayo Clinic Health System in 1995 as an orthopedic surgeon in Albert Lea. He became that hospital’s medical director in 2001, and was promoted to chief executive officer in 2004, all the while working as a surgeon. Then, in March 2012, he was named CEO of both Austin and Albert Lea locations, 10 months ahead of those hospitals’ merger. Now, working 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week — plus being on call every other night — he’s focused on implementing a team-
based approach to health care as the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, takes effect. Add to that the merger of the Austin and Albert Lea hospitals, Austin’s $28-million expansion and Mayo Clinic Health System’s furthered partnership with Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and his plate is full. “I do enjoy what I do, and I certainly wouldn’t work that many hours if I didn’t enjoy it,” Ciota said. Eventually he’ll slow down, he said — at age 50, he can’t keep up the pace he was at 10 or 15 years ago. “But I still enjoy it so much that I think the hours are worth it,” he added.
Since the Austin and Albert Lea locations have transitioned from an affiliation with Mayo Clinic to a full partnership, doctors have reaped the benefits of a larger knowledge base, access to patient medical records throughout the system and the elimination of redundancies like repeated blood work or X-rays, as all locations use the same equipment. One of the larger issues during the change, however, is patient access — or wait time — to see a doctor. While the medical center has hired more physicians
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Age: 50 Town: Albert Lea Hometown: Morris, Ill. Job: CEO and orthopedic surgeon, Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin Hobby: While Ciota doesn’t have much free time, he tries to spend it with his wife, Allison, and his 21and 23-year-old daughters. After that, he enjoys watching NASCAR and playing the EA Sports’ NASCAR video game. Background: Ciota is leading the local medical center through myriad changes, from a merger of the Albert Lea and Austin locations and an increased partnership with Mayo Clinic, to a team-based health care approach as the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented.
New model encourages doctors to keep patients healthy By Sarah Stultz
sarah.stultz@albertleatribune.com
Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin is in the early stages of rolling out a new care model. Called the Mayo Model of Community Care, it addresses a projected growing shortage of physicians combined with an increase in health care needs. Tammy Kritzer, operations administrator for Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin, said in two to three years, all Mayo community medical centers will have implemented the care model. “We want to provide outstanding care to the
residents of our communities, but we want to do it in a way that bends the cost curve,” Kritzer said. “We need to figure out a way to deliver care in a manner that is less expensive than it is today, and we believe the way to do that is to embrace care team levels.” Under the model, a physician will oversee a team of caregivers such as nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, dietitians and other health care workers. Instead of always meeting with a physician, a patient may meet with any of the other health care workers, sometimes more than one depending on the need.
The idea is that a care team would know patients better and there would be consistent care because more than one person understands the patient’s issues. “It’s all around the patient experience,” Kritzer said. “We know that team-based care will be part of our future.” The hospitals have worked on implementing the changes and a couple of pilot care teams have already begun in Austin. The hospital hopes to learn from these teams and in the next two to three years begin care teams in all departments in both locations, she said. 4Model, Page 4
Dr. Mark Ciota tours the lower level of the expansion of the medical center in Austin after it was opened to staff for the first time in January.