PAST & FUTURE

Sumit Bhagra, M.D. takes over Austin and Albert Lea Mayo sites with an eye on learning from the past and preparing for the future

By Eric Johnson

It’s been an exciting time for Mayo Clinic Health Systems-Austin over the past decade — filled with remodels, additions and growth.

Sumit Bhagra, M.D. has been there for all of it and during that time has assumed the position of site lead physician for both Austin and Albert Lea sites. Bhagra took over the position from Dr. Mark Ciota in August of 2021.

It is literally a world away from where he started his medical career.

Bhagra started his career in India before taking the opportunity to train in internal medicine and endocrinology with Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

“I’ve always been interested in metabolic health, sort of healthy living and becoming a diabetes expert, as well as other hormonal disorders, seemed like a natural fit for me,” Bhagra said.

But it wasn’t necessarily the path Bhagra thought he would be taking. It was an opportunity that came along at the right time that couldn’t be turned down.

“They say life is lived forward and understood backwards,” Bhagra said. “I took the opportunity and as I look back it all makes sense. Did I envision myself working in Austin or being a community provider in Minnesota? Did I know the state I would be living in? I did not. At the time the opportunity was available and you grab the opportunity and you run with it and find yourself in a place that when you look back it all makes sense. It does for me today.”

Bhagra completed his training in 2009 and chose to stay in the area.

“The Mayo Clinic Health System was a good fit for me because my heart really lies in community practice,” he said. “I’ve been here for the last 12 years or so practicing.”

In 2015, Bhagra took on the medical director role at both the Austin and Albert Lea sites and that led into the lead physician role that blends the positions of CEO and medical director.

He’s been at that job for six months.

The amount of change Bhagra has seen during this time in southeastern Minnesota has been staggering. Austin’s site has been defined by growth that broadens the location’s capabilities. It’s built additions including the Family Birthing Unit, remodeled surgical and enhanced other areas.

The site has explored and installed revolutionary technologies and has been a major part of centralizing collaboration among the health system sites, as well as Mayo Clinic in general.

And all of that has taken part in a relatively slim time frame. The first mammoth addition expanded the hospital on the northwest edge of the site, remodeling the front entrance and adding an entire new wing. That opened in 2012. The latest work on the hospital wrapped up all aspects in 2021. Bhagra explained that all of this work has been able to improve the site in three primary areas: people, plant and processes. Mayo has now established a tighter alignment with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, improving best practices and heightening medical science across the board. Obviously, the site has been expanded to accommodate more and when it comes to people, both the Austin and Albert Lea sites combined has added close to 40 providers. “The people, the plant and the processes are functioning at a much higher level today than they were four, five years ago,” Bhagra said. “We were doing a great job at the time and at the time I think were delivering care as best as a semi-independent hospital can, but truly getting this to be an integrat-

“They say life is ed medical system has helped us function at a much higher level.” Bhagra expects these changes to have far-reaching implications as lived forward and well. “I have some great things envisioned in the future, say over the next understood eight to 10 years and Austin and Albert Lea Mayo Clinic Health Systems is going to be in a much better spot in 2030 thanks to investments we backwards. I took made in technology and the forward thinking things we’ve already the opportunity done,” Bhagra said. While Bhagra has seen some truly monumental advances in both citand as I look back ies, there’s no way to talk about the last 10-15 years without mention ing the elephant in the room. it all makes sense.” COVID-19, the pandemic that’s been dominating lives for the past two years, has placed extremely high levels of pressure on hospitals

Dr. Sumit Bhagra across the nation. Mayo Clinic is no different. During this time, the hospital system has had to deal with staffing shortages and capacity issues as it battles the pandemic even at the local level. At the same time, Bhagra said the hospital has been able to pivot in a lot of ways. “Sometimes adversity brings out the best of us and obviously COVID is a reality we’ve dealt with,” he said. “But the way in which we’ve collaborated … for example our primary care physicians, who see patients in the clinic, have been helping out in the hospital because there was a need. They’ve been putting in their best efforts possible, despite all of the adversity they’ve faced.” At the same time, there have been advances coming out of the pandemic. Mayo has expanded its telemedicine capabilities during the pandemic, which has improved overall how the hospital is meeting patients where they are. It’s a shift Bhagra expects to continue into the future, even if the future is a difficult thing to read.

Sumit Bhagra, M.D., medical director for Mayo Clinic Health System - Albert Lea and Austin and Mark Ciota, M.D. and CEO of Mayo Clinic Health System - Albert Lea and Austin in August of 2018, reveal plans for the new Family Birth Center and a time frame for construction during a news conference. Herald file photo

“If you asked me to predict the future three years ago, I would not know where we would be today because COVID-19 did not exist,” he said. “Whatever I predict today, the caveat might be different in 2030.”

Mayo has found itself adapting to people’s needs, rather than people having to adjust to changes at Mayo.

“They want to consume health care differently and it no longer works to ask our customers to adapt to us,” Bhagra said. “We’ve got to adapt to what people want and what people want is consumerism. They want easy access, they want virtual access, they want to be able to see their providers in person as well as on video when needed.”

The pandemic has only served to heighten that expanded technological need. A need that is happening at an ever-quickening pace.

“Change happens slowly at first and then suddenly overnight we were able to switch because of all the investments we have done,” Bhagra said, speaking specifically to telemedicine capabilities. “It’s also said that luck favors the prepared, so the preparations were under way for a new world that was going to be technologically driven.”

It’s probably a foregone conclusion that technology will continue to define how modern medicine is delivered to the public, but it’s hard to say in what way. Technological advances will continue to come faster and faster and Bhagra sees Mayo being on the front edge of that.

But even with shifts in technology, Mayo has to be ready to meet the main challenge first. All roads lead to patient care.

“The one thing that hasn’t changed is the singular focus on the needs of the patient coming first,” Bhagra said. “I’ve worked in and seen many other health systems and Mayo is unique in that they have a singular patient care focus. We always design our solutions based on what the patient would need.”

Part of that is establishing recruitment and retention to keep top-quality staff surrounding the patient, because at its core it’s all about top-notch patient care.

“Over the past 15 years we’ve become more nimble, we’ve become more fast moving, multi-faceted,” Bhagra said. “We realize the synergies of working together.” P