Mayo Clinic’s Vice Chair of Operations in Supply Chain Management, Bruce Mairose, shares the Mayo Culture at Singapore Healthcare Management 2015.
A single ideal drives the entire operations at one of the world’s best Academic Medical Centres. Mayo Clinic’s Vice Chair of Operations in Supply Chain Management, Bruce Mairose, shares the Mayo Culture at Singapore Healthcare Management 2015.
“The best interest of the patient is the only interest to be considered, and in order that the sick may have the benefit of advancing knowledge, union of forces is necessary.”
Those were the words of Dr William James Mayo, one of the founders of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic. It describes the ideals of the founders that make the Academic Medical Centre among the best in the world.
The Mayo Clinic is all about teamwork and collaboration. Mairose describes a typical stay for a patient to be all encompassing – taking care of their medical needs in every area, involving as many professionals as necessary, and being with the patient as long as they are required.
“We work as a team, and the needs of the patient always come first,” he emphasised.
He shares the story of a young mother, whose baby girl started to tip backwards at the age of three. By seven, the little girl was on a wheelchair, and when she was 14 years-old, her mother brought her to Mayo Clinic after reading about a doctor’s research online.
The doctor examined the girl. “If I’m right, we’re going to fix her today,” he told the mother. He then left the room to have a consultation with a few colleagues before returning with a syringe.
We’ll know if it works in an hour,” the doctor said as he administered the fluid. One hour passed, and her leg started to move
“This is not because we have the best doctors,” explains Mairose. “Our people are just very highly specialised. We have clinical specialties, and sub-specialties, and sub-specialties after that.”
Ensuring a high level of competency across the board lets Mayo take the lead in providing world class care to their patients. This model of operation, he explains, extends even to the supply chain.
A move to automation in purchasing resulted in an improvement from 661 purchase orders per full-time equivalent (PO/FTE) to 1,549 PO/FTE, with about 70% of purchase orders being generated automatically, and invoices processed in as fast as 2 days.
Such levels of automation mean staff can be re-deployed and upgraded as specialists, serving various specialties to understand and adapt the system to become more efficient.
By creating purchasing specialists, the supply chain is moved to the bedside, as close to patient as possible.
Staff satisfaction is at more than 90%, and patients continue to receive top notch care. That, said Mairose, is the Mayo Culture at work.
“The most adaptable to change will survive, and we work with whoever we have to.”
