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Katie McKee serves as transplant administrator for the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center in Rochester, MN. In this role, she supports incredible teams serving patients throughout the integrated transplant practice of solid organ, bone marrow, and vascularized allotransplant such as face or extremity. She completed her master’s degree in public health from Columbia and administrative fellowship at Mayo Clinic.
Katie’s career started with a passion for public health and health infrastructure, and she was first interested in transplant from the understanding that transplant patients are “followed for life.” She has since worked in several dimensions of the transplant community – including working for our organ procurement organization and serving on national efforts related to organ and tissue donation, hospital partnerships and performance measurement. Donation and transplant have also touched her life on a personal level. Katie experienced being part of a donor family when her dad died suddenly in 2018, and in 2019 she became a non-directed living kidney donor for a young woman who has since become a dear friend.
It’s clear to all who work with her that Katie embodies servant leadership. She credits her parents’ commitment to serving the community for her leadership style. She takes every spare minute and opportunity to lift up those around her, sharing that she sees her job as trying to understand what colleagues need to best serve patients and reach their goals—then doing everything she can to support them. Katie also takes time to serve on numerous local boards and committees and to be a mentor to many people inside and outside of the organ donation and transplant community.
But what does a hospital administrator do for our patients? In general, hospital administrators partner with a physician leader to oversee behind-the-scenes daily operations, strategic direction, staffing, compliance and policy implementation while fostering collaboration among teams. This collaboration is where Katie sees her role in serving patients. As part of the multidisciplinary approach that drives transplant patient care, members of dozens of disciplines, specialties, teams and functions experience different elements of what patients most value in their care experience. It is an administrator’s job to create space and structure for teams to bring all of those perspectives together to synergize how care teams can best serve patients today – and transform to serve patients even better in the future.
In every visit for your care at Mayo Clinic or any hospital, there is an administrative team led by a hospital administrator caring for you behind the scenes. The members of these teams were likely drawn to work in healthcare because they care about patients and people. In transplant this team helps support your care through organizing, documenting, scheduling, and creating an environment for doctors and nurses to care for you throughout your transplant journey. We are honored to be able to introduce you to Katie, and we look forward to the opportunity to share more staff stories with you in the coming year.
HELPFUL LINKS
- Make an appointment
- Register to become a living donor
- Learn more about our discussion group at Mayo Clinic Connect
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Thank you. As someone who has personally been through both sides of the transplant experience, Katie brings a rare insight that can't help but make her work product that much more meaningful.
Ginger
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1 ReactionPlease keep up your enthusiasm, I was let down by a lung specialist who was basically dragging me along until I died. Unfortunately for him I didn't despite ending up in ICU hypoxic. I was forced to point out to the specialist team that this man had let me down by way of setting a benchmark of losing 20lb, stating I was too overweight to be operated on. I weighed 160lb. My opinion was that I admitted I was an ex-smoker (10 years prior) was his reasoning. I told the professor of the lung transplant team and him that I believe it is time he moved on to another area as he lacked any care and was biased.
While my heart transplant and subsequent care is provided via Mayo-Phoenix, the culture of care starts at the mothership...I mean top. I particularly love the commitment to follow transplant patients through the transplant journey. As my Medical Masters at Mayo have told me, I am under their care for the rest of my "unnatural" life.
Best always,
s!