Since its opening in 1986 with 35 doctors and a support staff of 145, Mayo Clinic in Florida has grown into a health care behemoth with more than 4,500 employees and an annual impact of $1.6 billion on the Jacksonville economy.
“It’s been quite a journey over 25 years,” said Dr. William Rupp, CEO of Mayo’s Jacksonville operations.
Those numbers only tell part of the story of Mayo’s impact on the Northeast Florida economy.
With its reputation for state-of-the-art medical care and research, Mayo has attracted thousands of visitors who may not otherwise have visited Jacksonville and also helped attract new corporations to locate in the area.
“It’s very much an important symbol for our city,” said Jerry Mallot, executive vice president of JAX Chamber.
“The name has such a cachet about it that it does make a difference,” he said.
Mayo Clinic is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Jacksonville this month. The Jacksonville clinic was Mayo’s first facility opened outside of its home base in Rochester, Minn.
The Mayo campus on San Pablo Road on Jacksonville’s Southside is built on about 400 acres of land donated by the Davis family, founders of the Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. supermarket chain.
As the story goes, family patriarch J.E. Davis, one of Jacksonville’s most powerful business leaders, was so pleased by the care he received at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota that he led the recruitment drive to bring Mayo to Jacksonville.
The opening of Mayo helped establish health care as one of Jacksonville’s major industries. A recent study by University of North Florida economist Paul Mason found that about one in five area workers are employed in the health care and bioscience fields. Mason said the industry is probably more significant in Jacksonville than in other cities.
“We have a Mayo Clinic, which doesn’t exist elsewhere,” he said.
Mason estimated a total direct annual impact of $7.4 billion from the health care industry on the Northeast Florida economy and an indirect impact of $24.5 billion.
“The key to economic impact is always what comes in from outside,” he said.
That’s where Mayo plays a huge part. The Jacksonville clinic now treats more than 80,000 people a year and has seen more than a half-million patients over 25 years, coming from all 50 states and 143 countries.
Why do they visit Mayo in Jacksonville? “Have you ever been to Rochester in the winter,” joked Rupp. “Clearly, location is important as we’re in the Southeast.”
On a more serious note, patients come to Mayo in Jacksonville for specialized care, including transplants and rare cardiac surgeries, Rupp said.
The local facility is also a leading research center for Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.
Patients may visit for three to five days for a diagnostic visit and possibly up to a month for a transplant case. Mayo in Jacksonville has performed more than 3,800 organ transplants since opening its transplant center in 1998.
Those long visits not only bring patients but often their families.
“That’s where the city plays a big role,” said Rupp, as families seeking diversions discover what Jacksonville has to offer.
“Jacksonville is one of the great best-kept secrets,” he said.
The chamber of commerce has long touted Mayo’s presence as one of the attractions in bringing businesses to the area.
“It really does ring true with many companies,” said Mallot.
Sometimes Mayo helps business leaders discover Jacksonville on their own.
Mallot said some companies send their top executives to Mayo in Jacksonville for physicals, and they see what the city has to offer.
“It’s also one of the great stories of development in Jacksonville,” Mallot said.
After starting with one four-story building in 1986, Mayo’s campus has grown to include three main patient care buildings and a 214-bed hospital that opened in 2008. The hospital itself treats more than 10,000 patients a year and is filled to capacity, Rupp said.
“We’re beginning the consideration of adding more floors,” he said.
Besides expanding the hospital, Rupp expects Mayo to continue to expand its research into fields such as regenerative medicine, in which new organs and tissue are grown from human cells, and genomics, the study of genes.
“That’s going to be the next big revolution in the next few years,” said Rupp, adding that genomics is particularly important in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
“As we begin to find these particular genes, then we can find the drugs to counteract that,” he said.
So Mayo will continue to play a major role in the health care field and in the Jacksonville economy.
“I only see us continuing to grow,” Rupp said.
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