The Mayo Clinic has expanded its Caribbean presence with the opening of a patient information office at Regatta Office Park, marking its first location in Cayman and its third in the region.
The office will not provide clinical care locally. Instead, it will provide support to patients, families and insurers seeking treatment at Mayo Clinic’s US flagship campus in Rochester, Minnesota and campuses located in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona and Jacksonville, Florida.
Mayo representatives said the decision to establish a Cayman office followed a steady increase in appointment requests from local patients.
“As a global organisation, we are seeing more appointment requests from patients from Cayman,” said Jose Solis-Padilla, senior director, International Patient Engagement, Mayo Clinic Internation. “We believe it’s our job and duty to serve them well.”
The Cayman office will offer free, non-clinical support services, including appointment coordination, facilitation of medical record reviews, guidance on travel and accommodation, and assistance navigating insurance and billing processes.
“Our primary value is that the needs of the patient come first,” said Solis-Padilla. “This office helps patients be stress-free with travel and logistics so they can concentrate on what they’re going for, which is their medical condition.”
Focus on serious and complex cases
The new office joins two other regional patient information offices in Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic in helping to coordinate what can often be a difficult process for Caribbean patients seeking highly specialised treatment overseas.
The primary goal of Mayo Clinic is to treat the serious and complex,” said Dr. Rafael Sierra, medical director for the Americas. “There are difficult cases that many countries may not have the infrastructure to manage because of the level of complexity involved.”
In this way Mayo Clinic serves as a referral centre for advanced oncology cases, complex transplant procedures, neurosurgery, specialised orthopaedic, neurological and other subspecialty treatments.
Representatives also said there has been growing global interest in programmes focused on longevity, regenerative medicine and comprehensive health evaluations.
Mayo Clinic representatives noted that while Cayman has modern health care facilities and internationally trained physicians, some cases still require referral abroad due to scale or subspecialty concentration.
“We recognise that there is a lot of local talent, but the volume is probably the differentiator,” said Solis-Padilla. “The benefit that we have is that we have the scale. We see patients from 140 countries. We see 1.4 million patients every year. So think of a system that is focused on sub-specialty fed by this volume.”
Integrated practice model
Mayo representatives emphasised that the Cayman office is not intended to compete with local providers, but to complement existing services.
“There’s no competition. It’s actually a partnership,” said Solis-Padilla. “We will need to partner with the referral providers so that patients can continue their care locally as well. … Our goal as a representative office is to guide the patient that already has the interest in coming to Mayo Clinic to have complex treatment and bridge that gap between local providers and medical treatment in the US.”
The Mayo Clinic describes itself as an integrated medical practice rather than a traditional hospital model. Physicians are salaried and work collaboratively across disciplines.
“Physicians work together and arrive to one diagnosis and one treatment plan,” said Sierra.
Mayo representatives said the office will help to create a seamless patient experience with local healthcare teams, work with local insurers to facilitate access where policies include international coverage, and help to coordinate schedules for specialists, tests and procedures in close proximity to each other.
Appointment requests can be made directly by patients or through patient referrals from physicians.
The Cayman office will be staffed by a local representative, supported by teams based in the United States. Patient cases and medical records will be reviewed by Mayo physicians before appointments are scheduled, with Mayo representatives stating that response times are typically within a few business days once complete documentation is received.
Related Videos
