The Mayo Clinic announced on Thursday it is increasing the number it sees from roughly 3,000 to about 6,000.

The increase, which is expected to have a dramatic impact on its bottom line, will allow it to provide more care to patients.

The move comes at a time when Mayo Clinic patients have been struggling with an opioid crisis that has led to an opioid overdose death rate in the U.S. nearly double the national average.

In 2016, more than 18,000 people died of opioid overdoses in the United States.

The number of opioid-related deaths reached nearly 3,300 in the first six months of 2017, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the number is down from 2016, it is still higher than other leading medical centers in the country, such as Kaiser Permanente in California, where the number fell by more than 8 percent, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where it fell by 6 percent.

The Mayo clinic’s plan is to hire a new doctor to take over operations for the next six months.

“Our patient care teams have seen a significant number of patient referrals for prescription drugs over the past year and have been making some improvements to the care we provide,” the company said in a statement.

“We have seen significant growth in our use of new, high-quality medications for patients, and we believe the new physician will be a significant boost to our patient care.”

The Mayo is the only large health care organization in the nation to have the ability to increase the number, which comes at the expense of other health care institutions.

However, some medical providers say it is not the best way to help patients.

Dr. Jeffrey St. Clair, who works at the Mayo clinic in Rochester and is also the president of the National Association of General Practitioners, told Bloomberg that the new plan will have “significant implications for the overall quality of care we receive, for our patients and the quality of our community.”

He added that the changes could be problematic.

“It seems like the Mayo is trying to be a big part of this, and not the little piece,” he said.

“You’re really trying to push all the things that we don’t want to be part of.”