Pulse
It Took a Woman
A woman physician, that is, to call attention to the health of executive women.
When Deborah Rhodes, M.D., began working with Mayo Clinic’s Executive Health Program in 1999, virtually all of her patients were men. Although Mayo offered the program to all comers, the handful of women Rhodes saw tended to be spouses of executives whose corporations were sending them to the clinic for an intensive two days of screenings and appointments. “I became concerned about that pattern,” she says. “As a working mother myself, I kept thinking that this seemed like a great opportunity to address the needs of women who have the stress of working, caring for children, and being so pressed for time,” she says.
Wanting to learn more about the health practices of executive women—and get to the bottom of why they weren’t taking advantage of Mayo’s program—Rhodes held a focus group in Chicago, where a number of men who use Mayo’s program live. She found that the 24 women who took part in the focus group were getting their care in a very piecemeal fashion—a pelvic exam from their gynecologist, a mammogram from a breast center, treatment for acute problems from an internal medicine physician or a nurse practitioner. The women also felt no one was taking charge of their preventive care. “All the doctors assumed another doctor was doing it, and they would focus on the acute issue that brought the patient into the office,” Rhodes says.
The reason why the women didn’t participate in executive health programs was the fact that they were perceived as being for men. That’s not surprising. A Google search on executive health programs turned up a number of Web sites that are heavy on images of men. “There was concern that there was an elitist quality to it,” Rhodes says, adding that the women also felt they were being disloyal to their doctors back home by seeing other providers.
With that knowledge in hand and with the support of the director of Executive Health at Mayo, Rhodes and her colleagues developed a parallel program for women in 2002. The way Mayo’s program works is that patients are interviewed over the phone about their medical history, health problems that run in their families, and their particular health concerns. A physician specializing in internal medicine then orders the appropriate preventive and diagnostic tests and consults over a two-day visit. Participants see female physicians when possible. “Before they walk through the door, patients have a schedule designed with very little downtime,” says Rhodes, who serves as medical director of Mayo’s Women’s Executive Health Program. “We aren’t offering medical care for the elite but rather a comprehensive evaluation tailored to the needs of each individual woman we see; it’s really more of a time saver.”
Last year, approximately 900 women took part in the program, including Theresa Bailey, an international attorney who is president of Advanced International Inc. in Minneapolis. Bailey, who had heard male colleagues at a previous employer rave about the program, especially likes the fact that she comes away with a wide-angle view of her health. “They talk candidly, openly, and honestly about your health,” she says of the Mayo physicians. “They make you responsible for your health and put you on notice about things that may turn up if you don’t do A, B, or C. For a Type A overachiever like me, that was exactly what I wanted.”
Bailey says the Mayo physicians have helped her avoid the traps that could lead her to succumb to the diabetes and high blood pressure that run in her family. They also look out for illnesses she could have picked up while traveling to Africa, Asia, and South America on business.
But perhaps the part of the program she values most is the emphasis on education. When doctors discovered malignant cells in one of her breasts, they had her read Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book before sitting down and discussing options. “When the time came to make decisions about this, I was able to participate at the table equally with the physicians as to the treatment and course of action,” she says.
Rhodes emphasizes that participating in the program isn’t like visiting a spa. “There’s no fluff, no massages between appointments, no special slippers that you wear,” she says. “We provide services that are justified on the basis of good medical care.”
Most insurers cover the cost of the tests and exams; companies that send executives through the program generally pay the entire bill or any remaining expenses as a perk. Participation in the program costs $2,500 to $3,000, on average.
Although Mayo just started marketing the women’s program to businesses, it’s women like Bailey who are its biggest promoters. “If I hear women I meet sniffle, I jump into the middle of their business and talk about the Mayo women’s program.” —K. Kiser