Emily Molden (MHA '24): Mayo Clinic - Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (DLMP)

 

Hello from Rochester, Minnesota! This summer I had the privilege of completing my summer internship with Mayo Clinic in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (DLMP). The Mayo Clinic Enterprise serves those from both across the United States and across the world treating more than 1.4 million patients annually. The original, and largest site, Mayo Clinic Rochester is made up of 40,000 employees, numerous medical specialties, and over 100 years of providing some of the most complex care. Downtown Rochester is made up of predominantly Mayo-owned facilities to support the growing number of employees and patients who seek care here each day with plans to expand by 2030. 

The Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology is based in the Hilton Building and is the second largest department at Mayo Clinic comprised of 11 different divisions and over 66 operating laboratories. I had the opportunity to work closely with two Operations Administrators (OAs) on my two main projects. My primary preceptor, Mark Brown who is also the Administrator for DLMP Education and Staff Development tasked me with creating a master space plan to incorporate the space needs for each education program within the department. This includes a residency program, 11 anatomic pathology fellowship programs, 11 clinical pathology fellowships programs, and 7 allied health programs. Combined, DLMP supports over 160 trainees annually who utilize a lot of space that has been found to be inadequate to support their learning. I was able to interview staff and tour each educational space to identify where the constraints were and what additional space was needed to accommodate these growing programs. Through the master space plan, I was able to provide formal recommendations, identify an ideal state for DLMP education, and list how to leverage resources to compete with top competitors as a recruitment and retention strategy. 

The second project I was tasked with was to create a business plan to optimize the Clinical Forensic & Toxicology Lab within the Division of Clinical Biochemistry and Immunology. I had the opportunity to work with internal stakeholders including Operations Administrator, John Osborn, and stakeholders from the Mayo Collaborative Services (MCS), a for-profit partner of DLMP. The goal of this project was to map out how we can increase external volumes over the next three years by identifying what current and new tests will be the focal point, what the market demand for those tests is, and what capacity and resources are needed to fulfill those projected volumes. In addition to the basis of this project, I conducted a competitive market analysis, identified risks associated with implementing this plan, and looked at how to leverage laboratory partnerships to support low-volume testing. 

In addition to my two main projects, I got to experience a variety of other incredible things happening within Mayo Clinic. I visited the Eau Claire Health System site, watched multiple surgeries in the OR with the Transfusion Medicine team, visited the autopsy, apheresis, and frozen section labs, and got to witness the incredible work of the Blood Donor Center. One of the many unique features of Mayo Clinic is that they utilize their very own blood donations from patients and staff for surgeries rather than solely purchasing blood from a third-party blood bank. During my time at Mayo Clinic, I got to experience the Blood Donor Center both as an administrator and donor and learned that Mayo Clinic has never canceled a surgery due to a lack of blood inventory. During my final week, they opened their third blood donation site with a memorable ribbon-cutting ceremony and kind words from the Interim Chair, Dr. Pritt, and Associate Administrator, Georg von Bormann.

During my free time, I spent time reading, exploring the Historic SW streets of Rochester, visiting the cities, hiking the trails of Whitewaters State Park, and visiting both of my homes in Sioux City, Iowa and Iowa City, Iowa. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait to apply the skills I have learned once I am back in the classroom for my final year! 

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