History of Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic traces its heritage to the practice of a frontier doctor, William Worrall Mayo, an Englishman who settled in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1863. Dr. Mayo's dedication to serving patients and his community became a family tradition when his two sons joined his medical practice in the 1880s.
As the family's reputation and practice grew, the Mayos invited other doctors to join them. This group of doctors initiated a new idea in American medicine -- the multi-specialty group practice.
Although both Mayo brothers died in 1939, the Mayo Clinic has continued to be guided by the principles and ideals they instituted.
The Mayo facilities in Jacksonville, Florida, and Scottsdale, Arizona, now extend that tradition of excellence and dedication to new areas of the country.
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- 1863 - Dr. William Worrall Mayo moves to Rochester to examine new recruits for the Union Army. He stays to set up a solo medical practice.
- 1883 and 1888 - Dr. Mayo's two sons, William J. and Charles H., join him in practice after they finish medical school.
- 1883 - A tornado strikes Rochester. Mother Alfred Moes, founder of the Sisters of St. Francis, proposes to build and staff a hospital if Dr. W.W. Mayo will provide medical care. Saint Marys Hospital opens in 1889 with 27 beds.
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- 1892 - First partner added to Mayo family practice. More physicians were invited to join, thus beginning the concept of medical teamwork. The team approach naturally led to a division of labor specialists in different fields working together.
- 1901 - Dr. Henry Plummer joins the Mayo practice from a nearby small town. He was instrumental in designing systems to realize the Mayo's concept of group practice, a common medical record; lifts and conveyors for moving records and X-rays; a registration system and one of the world's first telephone paging systems. These systems, refined over 90 years, still serve well today.
- 1907 - Patient registration number one given out. Five thousand patients register at "the Mayo's clinic" as it has come to be known.
- 1915 - Doctors came from all over the world to observe and learn. This led to the organization this year of one of the world's first formal graduate training program for physicians, the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.
- 1919 - The Mayos turn over all the assets of the Mayo Clinic to the nonprofit Mayo Properties Association, the forerunner of Mayo Foundation.
- 1939 - William and Charles Mayo die within a few months of each other. The clinic they founded, however, continues to grow into an internationally known medical center.
- 1950 - Drs. Edward C. Kendall and Philip S. Hench awarded the Nobel Prize for isolation and first clinical use of cortisone.
- 1972 - Mayo Medical School opens.
- 1986 - Mayo Clinic Rochester, Saint Mary's Hospital, Rochester Methodist Hospital integrate.
- 1986 - Mayo expands outside Minnesota for the first time with the opening of Mayo Clinic Jacksonville.
- 1987 - Mayo Clinic Scottsdale opens, St. Luke's Hospital, Jacksonville, becomes part of Mayo. Registration number 4,000,000 given out.
- 1992 - Mayo begins to form regional network of clinics and hospitals. Decorah (Iowa) Medical Associates is first existing practice acquired by Mayo.
- 1995 - Site opens on World Wide Web at www.mayo.edu.
- 1996 - Mayo Eugnio Litta Children's Hospital opens, part of Saint Marys Hospital.
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File "history.html" last modified: Saturday, 12-Apr-97 11:00:13 CDT.
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