Mayo Clinic — why not aim for the best?
by James C. Sherlock
Virginia does not host a single one of the world’s best hospitals.[1] But America does. Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic have been ranked at the top of such ratings for as long as I can remember. Neither of them are here in the Commonwealth, I believe Virginia could change that.
Mayo Clinic is top-ranked for quality more often than any other health care organization.It has medical centers in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Phoenix, Ariz. In addition, Mayo Clinic partially owns and operates the Mayo Clinic Health System in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
Cleveland Clinic has countless facilities all over Ohio and locations in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, London, in Charleston WV, Toronto, Las Vegas and Elko, NV and dozens of locations in Florida.
With the exception of Cleveland Clinic’s Charleston, W.Va., outpost on the periphery of its Ohio core, neither system has a mid-Atlantic presence.
The business case for attracting Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic to locate here must include:
- freedom to create a regional system by a combination of acquisitions and construction;
- state and local government support;
- regional airports, interstate highways, lodging and other attractions to support destination medicine; and
- freedom to develop a regional campus of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science or the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine or both.
Most of what they need exists in Virginia Freedom does not. Without permanent exemption from Certificate of Public Need, the conversation will never begin.
Those systems attract medical professionals from all over America. They will serve to alleviate Virginia’s shortages of doctors and nurses with the draw of world-class excellence, medical schools and Continuous Nursing Education (CNE) opportunities.
I recommend two locations in Virginia that should prove perfect for them.
South Hampton Roads. The first is South Hampton Roads and its 1.3 million people. Virginia Beach is already a major regional tourist destination and the largest city in the state.
Chesapeake can offer a major hospital that has struggled economically for a long time. Norfolk and Portsmouth host Bon Secours hospitals that have not made money for years. They are under constant economic pressure from regionally dominant Sentara and Sentara’s Optima Health HMO and health insurer. Good luck to Sentara in trying to pressure Mayo Clinic.
The Chesapeake Regional Medical Center is an outlier here. It is not a part of a larger system. The Board of the Chesapeake Hospital Authority is appointed by the city council. The board already has legal authority to sell the hospital. Bon Secours would, I believe, readily sell DePaul (Norfolk) and Maryview (Portsmouth) or form a joint venture with the new system. This would not present antitrust issues because Sentara would still be larger.
Norfolk/Virginia Beach International Airport serves the entire mid-Atlantic. I-64 is being widened all the way to I-95 and a third tube is being built for the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.
Prince William County. The other potential location is Prince William County. It is growing fast. It is already seeking to attract a medical school. It is served by Dulles and two very busy general aviation airports.
Prince William is served by Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge and Novant Health UVA Health System Medical Centers in Manassas and Haymarket. While the new system will want to build its own central campus and medical school, it also will be open to joint ventures with existing hospitals. Again no antitrust issues.
Leadership Required. Each location is attractive. Each healthcare system would raise the quality of medical care in Virginia. Each would help alleviate Virginia’s physician and nursing shortages. Each would prove a major economic boon.
With the COPN exemption in place, it is not unreasonable to think that Virginia could attract both Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. God knows we need the help. We will never know unless we try.
What say you, Governor? General Assembly members? Chambers of Commerce? Local elected officials?
James C. Sherlock, a Virginia Beach resident, is a retired Navy Captain and a certified enterprise architect. As a private citizen, he has researched and written about the business of healthcare in Virginia.
[1] https://www.newsweek.com/best-hospitals-2020/
