My Experience at Mayo Clinic Rochester

Everyone has an opinion of Mayo Clinic. Whether they’ve been accepted as a patient or denied, people usually have something to say about it. The reviews I heard before going were difficult to follow. They were all specific to doctors or an isolated experience. I wanted to shed light on my experience as a whole. I’ve been treated at Mayo Clinic for a year now. I’ve seen hundreds of doctors and been hospitalized multiple times. I’ve had good experiences and bad experiences. This is an overview of my experience at Mayo Clinic Rochester.

The first doctor I saw at Mayo Clinic was less than thrilling. I had an anxious stomach for weeks and when I got there, he knew nothing about me or my situation. Despite the clear evidence of a problem he said outright that I was too sensitive to my heart rate and swelling. The experience with that physician was a let down but it opened the door. His lack of sympathy didn’t stop him from referring me to multiple other specialties. Once the door was open, I was having five appointments a day with various different types of doctors. Suddenly, I wasn’t too sensitive.

The real benefit to Mayo Clinic is the access you have to different specialties. Once you’re in the system, they can send you to all types of testing. I’ve had more tests down than I can count. I had biopsies, blood tests, procedures, and anything else you can think of. This can get confusing. No one likes to take responsibility for the results of the test. My experience was every doctor would order testing. Then when something came back I was sent off to someone else.

I had a primary care doctor at the time and I was keeping them informed. They weren’t through the Mayo System though so their ability to communicate was lacking. All and all, I have my diagnoses and treatment plan courtesy of Mayo Clinic. I’ve had surgery with them and follow up care was excellent. My experience as a whole has been very good. There are bad apples in the system but don’t let them taint your experience.

If I had one complaint about Mayo it would be that their staff aren’t trained to deal with service dogs. This often makes my blood boil. I encounter other service dog teams at Mayo. I’m not the only one. When their staff starts to interact with my dog I’m baffled. Their patient experience team dismissed it and told me to take the time to educate their staff. At a world class medical facility, I don’t feel like it’s my job to educate their staff. For example, I came out of an appointment and a staff member starting talking to Crush. I was still conversing with the nurse and somewhat distraught from the appointment. The news I received was not what I wanted nor expected. This secretary or tech was cooing at Crush, clearly getting his attention. Crush is a medical alert dog, among other things. His distraction can be life threatening. At that moment, I lacked emotional energy and could only say “Please Stop.” They learned nothing. Again, why their staff members haven’t been trained on the subject is completely beyond me.

If you have the opportunity to go to Mayo Clinic, it’s worth it. At least it is in my opinion. Their abilities far outweigh the cons of going. The facility is well kept. The support staff are kind and compassionate. Everyone is willing to help and is happy to do so the majority of the time.