The closure was real quick, as most said they heard it on Tuesday and on Wednesday the clinic was closed. The only person at the clinic who could see patients, a nurse 
practitioner left. So the clinic is looking for a replacement and the reason for the closure is “staff shortage”. Her page is still up here but I would guess it won’t be for long.
Some doctors are not taking new patients so this is a bit of a hardship here as well as patients driving to other Mayo facilities until a replacement is found. Patients would have to travel to Austin or Rochester. According to this article it states even if they do get a doctor it may only be open a couple days a week, wonder what they are paying a doctor?
This is considered a rural area so again that might make it more difficult to attract a replacement. This might indicate too that doctor shortages may appear more rapidly in the rural areas of the nation. BD
BLOOMING PRAIRIE — As far back as H. Peterson can remember, there has always been a clinic or doctor’s office open in Blooming Prairie — something that Peterson, the town’s mayor, says has added to the community’s standard of living.
That all changed this week when Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin — the health care campus through which the Blooming Prairie clinic operated — announced that a staffing shortage has forced the closing of the Blooming Prairie facility, at least on a temporary basis.
“I’m incredibly disappointed,” Peterson said about the announcement. “We’ve worked hard to maintain the clinic.”
And he said, the community itself has expressed what Peterson called “a lot of general disappointment” about the closing, even if it just on a temporary basis.
“She’s the one who was licensed to see patients,” said Tammy Kritzer, the operations administrator for both the Austin and Albert Lea campuses of Mayo Clinic Health System.
Becky Noble, the executive director of the Blooming Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce, said that the closing happened quickly, with most people hearing about the closing on Tuesday and the doors being shut on Wednesday.
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