“It’s been going on for years,” Colleen Spike, retiring CEO of River’s Edge, told the Star Tribune. “They are the elephant in the room that no one will address. Well, I am addressing it.”
In December, Ms. Spike and two area physicians also sent a letter to Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, claiming that Mayo physicians and staff were steering patients away from community hospitals through misinformation. Her most recent comments come on the heels of a rapidly growing merger and acquisition market in the hospital sector, including recent deals in the past two years involving Mayo.
In response, Mayo family physician Elizabeth Osborne, MD, who practices in St. Peter near River’s Edge, said Mayo does not practice anticompetitive behaviors. “It’s distressing to us to be accused of sabotaging River’s Edge,” she told the Star Tribune. “The hospital has been struggling, and it’s only natural to look for someone to put the blame on and say who’s at fault.”
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