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How do you prepare for an appointment at Mayo Clinic?
Recently, a Mayo specialist talked to Mayo Connect mentors about patients seeking care at Mayo. Every patient comes in with a story describing their medical issues. He explained his role as a medical detective looking for clues in the patient story that help determine diagnosis and treatment plan.
The typical patients seeking a specialist at Mayo fall into one of two categories:
-A rare condition, well defined and already diagnosis where Mayo specialist can provide their expertise in treating the patient.
-A patient with undefined issues where the patient is seeking a diagnosis or a 2nd opinion. Their local provider may of done initial investigation but have not found a solution.
By the time a patients reach out to Mayo, they may have years' worth of medical records. They are helpful, but only if organized and easily accessible and searchable. Reviewing years of medical records can be very time consuming. Even electronic records are often in different formats and not easily searchable.
In the Mayo Clinic Visitor Guide ( https://www.mayoclinic.org/patient-visitor-guide) , there is a great article "How to make the most of your Mayo Clinic appointment."
https://www.mayoclinic.org/patient-visitor-guide/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-appointment
What do you do to prepare for your initial visit with a specialist?
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I fall half into both categories somehow. My son has received a diagnosis and his condition isn't particularly rate nor life threatening but annoying and that's why I am seeking a second opinion on treatment plan after we figured his current team is too conservative and doesn't meet our needs (probably because they view his condition as "non serious"
@roch Thank you for starting this helpful Discussion. I have a question about the following statement you wrote:
"A patient with undefended issues where the patient is seeking a diagnosis or a 2nd opinion. Their local provider may of done initial investigation but have not found a solution."
What does "undefended" issues mean?
Opps typo, will ask to be corrected. Thanks for pointing out.
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1 ReactionIt may not be the word you intended @roc , but assuming “undefended” means not providing support or helpful information learned at home after referring a patient for a 2nd opinion….it happens. I so appreciate Mayo Clinic’s medical detectives for details I haven’t been able to provide.
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1 ReactionGood subject.
1) Mayo wants the actual scans and not just reports so people should be sure they have them when applying
2) I was given an immediate appointment, and they ordered Stress Test for my surgery and pulmonary function test. I had my pulmonary function test from a month before from my local provider so did not repeat at Mayo. I now regret that. That report from local provider is of questionable quality and misdiagnosed me. Today I need to do pulmonary function tests frequently to track changes but unfortunately, I don't have a reliable base line report.
I now do most of my testing at Mayo to assure consistency in reporting quality, and easy access for my Mayo doctors.
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