Mayo Clinic Rochester Workforce Topped 35,000 Last Year

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Mayo Clinic is reporting its finances were stable last year despite taking a hit on Wall Street in the final months of 2018.

The world famous health care provider’s annual report shows its overall revenues rose just over 5-percent to $12.6 billion. That includes a 6.8-percent jump in revenues from Mayo’s core business of providing medical services.

“Our strong performance in 2018 is due to the innovative and collaborative efforts by Mayo employees who adapted to changes across the organization while remaining focused on the best interest of our patients,” says Jeff Bolton, Mayo Clinic's chief administrative officer. “That success allowed us to reinvest in our people, our infrastructure and our mission, so we can better serve our patients and communities.”

The organization’s net operating income, which would be considered its profit if Mayo were not a non-profit entity, was steady at $706 million. That resulted in an operating margin of 5.6-percent. Overall net income totaled $554 million in 2018. That was down sharply from the $1.4 billion total in 2017 and Mayo blamed the entire drop on the 2018 investment market.

The report show the Mayo Clinic’s capital investments last year increased about $10-million to $724 million. $359 million was used for new facilities and technology projects and the remainder was allocated for maintenance and replacing existing equipment. Mayo has now spent in excess of $600 million on capital expenses for four consecutive years.

Mayo reported it contributed almost $340-million to its pension fund after a $556 million appropriation in 2017. Nearly $590-million was directed to providing care to people in need, including $78-million in charity care and $511-million in unpaid portions of Medicaid and other programs for those lacking insurance. Mayo estimates its costs associated with unpaid portions of expenses from patients covered by Medicare at $2.2-billion. The report also lists $6 million in cash and in-kind donations to local communities.

A record $1.1 billion was spent on research and education. That was up over 8-percent from the previous year with Mayo directly covering $590 million of the bill and the remaining $560-milion coming from government sources, private grants, and industry awards.

The Mayo Clinic says its worldwide workforce grew to over 63,000  in 2018 and that includes over 4,700 physicians and scientists. Over half of the total, or 35,250, are employed in Rochester.