Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic, nonprofit surgical and medical clinic with facilities located in Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; and Scottsdale, Arizona. The Mayo Clinic was created through the joint efforts of William W. Mayo and his sons, William J. and Charles H. Mayo, who began practicing together at St. Mary’s Hospital in 1889 (see Mayo family). The name was in informal usage after 1905 when other doctors were added to the staff. The first Mayo Clinic building opened in Rochester in 1914.

Three generations of the Mayo family established at Rochester the world-renowned Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. These centres were dedicated to diagnosing and treating nearly every known illness. The clinic began to grow in size in the early 1900s, when many young physicians began to apply for positions as interns and assistants. At the same time, outstanding scientists in general medical subjects were added to the clinic’s training and research programs. In 1919 the Mayo brothers transferred property and capital to the Mayo Properties Association, later called the Mayo Foundation, a charitable and educational corporation having a perpetual charter. About 1900 the Mayo Clinic was changed from a partnership to a voluntary association of physicians and specialists in allied fields.

In 1986 the Mayo Clinic merged with nearby St. Mary’s Hospital and Rochester Methodist Hospital. The Mayo Foundation also began a national expansion program that year, opening the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville; the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale opened in 1987. In 1992 the Mayo Foundation launched the Mayo Health System, a network of clinics, hospitals, and health-care facilities (including nursing homes), to serve communities in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In 2018 the Mayo Clinic expanded internationally, joining with the International Medical Center in Saudi Arabia, and in 2020, in partnership with Oxford University Clinic, the Mayo Clinic established a new health facility in London.

By the 2020s the Mayo Clinic’s three sites in the United States employed several thousand physicians, researchers, and scientists and more than 64,000 allied health staff and treated more than 1,300,000 patients annually. The clinic produces several publications, including Mayo Clinic Magazine.