“最佳雇主”求职亲历

    职务：高级项目经理——创新中心

    任职公司：梅奥诊所

    加入梅奥诊所（The Mayo Clinic）之前，佩里•艾达赫尔是一名患者的父亲。他儿子吉克在七岁时被诊断出患有肝癌，医生的预测非常可怕。艾达赫尔说：“当时，医生告诉我们，他的生命只剩几周时间，或许只有一两个月。”他与妻子带着吉克来到了位于明尼苏达州罗切斯特的梅奥诊所。

    艾达赫尔说：“我对那里的护理真的无话可说。从没有人想过放弃。”一组医生对吉克进行了会诊。最终，小儿科肿瘤学家和病理学家梳理出一条信息，最终让他们得出结论，吉克所患癌症的类型不同于他们之前的诊断。于是，他们改变了疗程，而吉克的病情也渐渐好转。艾达赫尔说：“现在已经过去14年。吉克已经21岁了，正在读大三。他在高中是多个体育项目的全能选手。根本想不出他曾经的经历。”

    吉克康复多年后，艾达赫尔听说梅奥诊所有一个IT职位空缺，便迫不及待地提交了申请。获得聘用之后，他便可以利用自己身为一名患者父亲的经历。他说，儿子患病期间，“身为一名优秀的会计师，我妻子制作了各种电子表格。但我们还是很难及时掌握哪些疗程的费用，另外还有哪些没有支付。”于是，艾达赫尔开始将患者的访问次数整合到医疗中心的支付系统当中。

    梅奥诊所认可了他的工作，并邀请他加入诊所的创新中心。59岁的艾达赫尔目前是该中心的一名高级工程经理，负责开发程序，帮助老年人安度晚年，独立生活更长时间。他说：“我欠这里太多太多。”

    Title: Senior Project Manager - Center for Innovation

    Company: The Mayo Clinic

    Before Perry Erdahl worked at the Mayo Clinic, he was the father of a patient. His son Jake was diagnosed with liver cancer at seven years old, and the prognosis was dire. "There was a point in time where they told us he only had a few weeks to maybe a month or two to live," Erdahl says. He and his wife took Jake to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

    "I just can't say enough about the care. Nobody ever gave up," says Erdahl. A team of doctors worked together to treat Jake. Ultimately, the pediatric oncologist and pathologist teased out a piece of information that led them to believe that Jake had a different kind of cancer than they originally thought. They changed the course of treatment, and Jake got better. "That was 14 years ago," says Erdahl. "He's 21 now. He's a junior in college. He was a multi-sport athlete in high school. You would never know what he went through."

    Some years after Jake's recovery, Erdahl heard about an IT job opportunity at the Mayo, and was eager to apply. Once he was hired, he was able to use his experience as the parent of a former patient. When his son was sick, he says, "My wife, who is a very competent accountant, had a whole set of spreadsheets. We had a hard time tracking which procedures she had paid for and which ones she hadn't." So Erdahl started incorporating a patient's visit number into the medical center's payment system.

    The Mayo recognized his work, and invited Erdahl to join the clinic's Center for Innovation. At 59, he's a senior project manager at the center, where he develops programs to help senior citizens age better and remain independent longer. He says, "I owe the organization an awful lot."