Residents start rotating at two community emergency departments early into their intern year. At these sites, they get exposure to community medicine with limited resources while working with board-certified EM doctors.  

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

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

Mayo Clinic in Albert Lea is an emergency department with an outpatient clinic with 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 ER and boarding patients while awaiting transfer. At both of these sites, residents have the opportunity to manage and care for bread and butter emergency medicine as well as manage more complex patients that live in the community.

Moonlighting

Beginning in the 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, Owatonna, Red Wing, Cannon Falls, and Lake City. Emergency departments in these towns include critical access hospitals with extremely limited resources to midsize hospital hubs.