We all have seen the red and white signs popping up around town these last few months. The signs read “Save Our Hospital,” which is a new group with a goal of maintaining a full-serviced hospital in Albert Lea. On June 12, Mayo Health System announced plans to move the special care, labor and delivery, and the inpatient surgery wings from the Albert Lea Mayo Health System Hospital to the Austin hospital. The organization formed a couple of weeks later in Albert Lea.
The “Save Our Hospital” group is run by several co-chairs which include Mariah Lynne and Brad Arends. The group meets weekly with eight committees and four advisors. They host public meetings every Sunday at 6 p.m. at the American Legion to try to update the community on new information.
“We’re out there doing advertising, and we’re sending out press releases, and we’re posting on Facebook,” said public relations co-chair, Jennifer Vogt-Erickson. The group currently has over 4,000 Facebook followers and is growing.
“We’re a completely volunteer organization and just citizen led,” Vogt said. Those who would be interested in getting involved can join the Facebook page, attend the weekly meetings, call representatives to get their voice out, or purchase shirts and yard signs.
Mayo recently designed a website to cover explanations for questions asked by our community. According to the website, Mayo is keeping the most used services in our hospital in town. The website also says that the purpose of the change is to make the impatient care unit stronger by allowing for higher levels of care and testing options for patients. The consolidation is planned to have the benefits of better use of resources by staffing single, larger units and avoiding duplication of expensive equipment and technology.
Mayo Health System in Albert Lea started the transition of 5% of services to the Austin hospital on Oct. 1.