Evaluating the CFI

In 2010 the Center for Innovation was a large and visible part of Mayo Clinic. It enjoyed the support of the highest levels of leadership at Mayo, and it was increasingly being sought out by Mayo physicians who wished to improve patient care and office work flows in their departments. The CFI had the distinction of being the only health care innovation center with a staff of in-house designers, and its Transform Symposium was attracting the attention of health care administrators from around the country.

At the same time, the CFI was facing the challenge of measuring its success, when not all projects could demonstrate a concrete return on investment. Even when the CFI could perform clinical trials showing the benefits of certain experiments in care delivery, it was finding that its contribution could best be described as “small changes for big impact.” According to senior designer Maggie Breslin, “you do a lot of tiny things, and if you group them all together and you do them well, that’s actually how you change the delivery system.”

Beyond these incremental innovations, the CFI also had larger ambitions. Its publications promised to “transform care delivery and experience” and to “think big, start small, move fast.” But the CFI was facing the challenge of making transformative change happen.