Residents start rotating at two community emergency departments early in their intern year. At these sites, they gain exposure to community medicine under limited resources while working alongside board-certified emergency medicine doctors.  

One of these emergency departments is in Austin, Minnesota, about 45 minutes from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The other is in Albert Lea, Minnesota, about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Rochester. There is a private shuttle with Wi-Fi and reclining seats that the residents can use to do emails, review notes, or relax on the way to and from these locations.  

Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin is a community hospital with inpatient facilities, with a progressive care unit, as well as OB/GYN, general surgery, and orthopedics consultation available. At this site, residents run their own traumas, provide acute stroke care, reduce fractures, and place splints in addition to managing all other emergencies.

Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea is an emergency department with an outpatient clinic, but no inpatient hospital. They get all of the same experiences as in Austin, plus the added experience of reassessing patients in the small four-bed observation unit managed by the emergency room and boarding patients while awaiting transfer. Mayo Clinic Health System in Red Wing is a community hospital with inpatient facilities with OB/GYN, general surgery, and orthopedics available for phone consultation. At both of these sites, residents have the opportunity to manage and care for common acute emergency medicine complaints, as well as manage more complex patients that live in the community.

Moonlighting

Around the beginning of their PGY-3 year, with program director approval, residents can pick up moonlighting shifts at sites throughout southeast and southwest Minnesota, including Mankato, Austin, Albert Lea, Red Wing, Cannon Falls, and Lake City, and in Southwest Wisconsin, La Crosse. Emergency departments in these towns include critical access hospitals with extremely limited resources to midsize hospital hubs.