Hi @roch- Thank you for the reply, kind words, and validation. And thanks also for the suggestion about checking out the “Care Plan” section in the portal. I’ll check that out; I haven’t used that part of it for my Mayo portal, though I’ve used it for others.

I felt really surprised and still feel disappointed about how difficult it’s been to schedule with General Internal Medicine in Jacksonville too. In Rochester, it seemed like everything magically ran like a well-oiled machine. Although, I will say, that I haven’t really had this issue with most other departments in Jacksonville. I have a feeling that Internal Medicine is either short-staffed and/or has higher volume in patients and orders.

I don’t mean to be all negative, and this forum is hosted by Mayo Clinic after all, and I’m just one individual experience, but after hearing so many others have extreme positive experiences and talking about getting so much support, etc. from Mayo, I feel…left out. Like I missed out or have done something wrong, but I know I haven’t. My experience has not been unicorns and rainbows and it’s almost a year later, and I’m literally still having the same scheduling issues.

I think it’s important to know both sides, and I wanted to be helpful because I’ve been working with the same scheduling desk that will likely be working with @janeanon . I wish I would have known earlier on that more of the scheduling responsibility would fall on me and do double-check that things were getting done, and done properly. Hopefully it won’t be like that for you!

But the errors and miscommunication from the scheduling team in General Internal Medicine had consequences for me. I mean no disrespect to @colleenyoung , but the scheduling team didn’t work well with me, often didn’t make an effort to work with my schedule, and among all the appointments I’ve had to schedule (and there have been many), I’ve only received two phone calls or portal messages prompting me to schedule. One of those times was a few weeks ago—this was because after my nurse told me I could schedule my follow-up, I called myself to schedule and they told me I couldn’t schedule it because a note in my chart said it couldn’t be scheduled (which was wrong). So we had to run things around in a circle again to obtain the permission to schedule me that I should have already had since November.

I wish had known to be proactive about asking them to schedule appointments and tests that had been ordered. In one case, I was erroneously told that an appointment had to be done in person to clear me for the next set of appointments. This led to me staying an extra weekend because of the timing, and when I got there, the provider was confused and surprised to see me because she does those specific appointments by telehealth!

I’m not just ranting though… I did notify the nurse coordinator who’s our main contact that this has been happening, and she did not seem surprised. I also met another patient at a group treatment program who’s been having the same challenges.

I submitted feedback to the Office of Patient Experience, so I’m hoping it’ll be a smoother experience for others eventually.