From Out of the Desert Blooms a Jewel of the Southwest: A Commentary on the History of Mayo Clinic in Arizona

Abstract

From the Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ. W hen Drs Will and Charlie Mayo traveled to Arizona for winter respites with their family and eventually purchased adjoining residences in Tucson in the 1930s, little did they know that Mayo Clinic in Arizona would someday arise out of the Sonoran Desert to become the third Mayo Clinic group practice. Indeed, they could not have envisioned how their values and vision for the practice of medicine, so central to the essence of Mayo Clinic, would become an integral part of health care in the southwestern United States. The expansion to Arizona was made possible by the 1983 decision to look at growth areas for additional Mayo Clinic campuses outside Rochester, Minnesota. In 1984, the decision was made to open a second group practice clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, which opened its doors in 1986. Approved in 1985 as a location for the next Mayo Clinic site, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale (as the operation was then known) sprang to life amidst saguaro, cholla, and prickly pear cacti on 180 acres of land in Scottsdale, nestled at the base of the majestic McDowell Mountains. The Scottsdale campus opened its doors in 1987. “Why Arizona?” some may ask. Chief AdministrativeOfficer Emeritus Robert Fleming tells that there was a decision made to expand not just to one location outside Rochester but to have 2 locations: Jacksonville, Florida, and another to-be-determined site. Criteria for selecting the next location included an area where the population was growing to minimize impact on existing local physicians. According to Robert Smoldt, former Chief Administrative Officer and the head of strategic planning at the time of theMayoClinic expansion, a key factor in site selection was the relationship of an area’s population compared with the number of academic medical centers or multispecialty group practices with more than 100 physicians. At the time, Phoenix, Arizona, was the largest