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The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday voted to move forward with submitting a letter to the leadership of Mayo Clinic Health System with questions regarding health care at the organization’s Albert Lea campus.

The county board, which also serves as the Community Health Board, had previously asked to have representatives attend an in-person meeting, but leadership reportedly stated they would not be able to attend an in-person meeting and could instead answer written questions.

Freeborn County Administrator Ryan Rasmussen said this response was stated both verbally and in an email, and Commissioner Chris Shoff asked that the email be entered into the minutes.
The letter, with more than 20 questions, will be sent to Dr. Sumit Bhagra, site lead physician at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin. In addition to questions about service, the letter asks questions about future plans for the organization and asks for a two-way dialogue between Mayo leadership and the public as was promised in 2017.

The letter comes as community members continue to show concern with the transition of many services to the Austin campus.

One question asks about the number of employees at each the Albert Lea and Austin campus; another asks what Mayo is doing to improve timely, accessible care.

Others ask whether the health system plans to reduce or move any more services from the Albert Lea campus and if the county can receive an at least six-month notice in advance of the reductions.

Other questions ask about the project to update the emergency room, transportation for Albert Lea seniors and why patients are paying more for their Medicare in Freeborn County compared to other counties in the state, according to the Minnesota Community Health Report.

Furthermore, the letter asks about average wait times before a patient receives an in-patient bed, how many beds in the surgical unit are occupied each day and if Mayo can release the obligation of the Naeve Foundation to provide funding support to Mayo Clinic Health system, which would allow the foundation to support other services in the community.

The letter asks about transportation-related issues, including how many patients have been asked to provide their own transportation because ambulance transport has not been available in a timely fashion, how many babies are born each year in the Albert Lea emergency room and how many babies have been born on Interstate 90 during transport. It also asks how many patients in the Albert Lea emergency room each day need hospitalization.

The letter also questions how many days a week outpatient surgery requiring anesthesia is performed in Albert Lea and if that number will be reduced, and if Mayo would be willing to relinquish its jurisdiction for another ambulance service, among others.

Fifth District Commissioner Nicole Eckstrom brought forward a series of edits to the questions that she said dealt mainly with cleaning up the language and correcting a few typos and punctuation.

The edited questions were not available as of press time.

Shoff motioned to move forward with the resolution and Eckstrom seconded.