Mayo Clinic to come to Mall of America

The Mayo Clinic is coming to the Mall of America. Mayo officials announced plans to open an outpost at the megamall to help reach new patients from across the region, the country and the world, and to serve existing patients better. The Mayo Clinic Gateway at the Mall of America is little more than a set of concepts now. While most details remain to be decided in the next 12 months, the officials said it likely won't provide primary care & it will complement rather than replicate the services offered by Rochester-based clinic. Mayo's CEO, Dr. Glenn Forbes, said it will serve as an "another front door" for the world-famous clinic & as a "platform of innovation" for finding better ways to deliver health care. "This is an opp for MN, Mayo Clinic and the Mall of America to skate to where the puck is going to be, rather than where the puck is," said Dr. David Herman, who's leading the project. He said initial concepts might be part of the facility include new programs for screening & prevention, services for new & returning Mayo Clinic patients & ed opps. They might help patients design personal prevention plans; help patients with access to Mayo services like transplants, appointments & logistics; & offer programs to serve patients from other states & other countries. The facility will be part of mall's Phase II development. Forbes and Herman said they don't know yet when it will start serving patients. He said the project will require no additional public money beyond a package he signed 2 sessions ago for funding parking ramps at the mall's Phase II development, north of the existing mall. Plans for Phase II include hotels, a water park, entertainment venues, movie theaters, cultural exhibit space & new retail stores like a Bass Pro Shops store, Maureen Bausch said, the mall's EVP of business development. Construction on a 500-room Marriott hotel will start just after the first of the year, she said. Timetables for the rest of the development haven;t been announced. Bausch said Mall of America, with over 500 retailers & other attractions, draws 40M visitors yearly from around the world. Forbes said the demographics of its customers, and the places they come from, are very close to those of the Mayo Clinic's patients.