Info and tips about going to Mayo Clinic without an appt

Good morning @bobbi54ny I am sorry to read of your daughter's difficulties and am glad you found Mayo Connect!

Just my personal opinion, but I know from experience Mayo is an increibly busy place and I simply cannot imagine showing up without an appointment. I've never done this, but think other than being seen in a regular hospital ER in a Rochester hospital it might be days before you could get in to see the specialists your daughter may need.

I'd suggest working as hard as possible with your doctor to get a referral especially so she/he could send all the background records to Mayo ahead of time.

Just my observations as a patient.

Two of my daughters drs in NYC h ave sent records.....spoken to the Mayo and have sent records... I have been told about being a "checker" sort of on a waiting list. My daughter is a 4th year PhD student and we are only able to go out at specific times so she doesnt miss class and mess around with 7 years of graduate work

Hi @bobbi54ny I too am glad you have found Connect! Please notice that I have moved your post to the Visiting Mayo Clinic group, so that you can be part of a group of people who have inquired about getting an appointment at Mayo and received answers from others who have been there, like @IndianaScott

Here are some other threads that may be of interest to you as you look into coming to Mayo.

- Accommodation recommendations: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/what-are-your-accommodation-recommendations-when-coming-to-mayo/

- Tips for first Mayo visit: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/tips-for-first-dr-visit-and-testsappt-schedules/

As @IndianaScott said, your best bet to get your daughter seen is to go through her doctor and get a referral. It would be awful for you to come all this way and not be able to see anyone by not having an appointment.

Since you have worked with your doctors already, you could try to set up an appointment on your own you can call the Central Appointment Office at 507-538-3270 and see if there are any openings within those specific times you mentioned.

Back to your daughter, what kind of symptoms is she having?

Please tell me how to save this conversation. Great info!

@bobbi54ny Sorry to hear you haven't gotten any satisfaction from your local medical team. Although I am not a patient at Mayo, I figure it works the same there as most places. You would be hard pressed to simply walk in and expect to see any doctor, let alone a raft of specialists. Established appointments will always take preference, and some of those people have also traveled a long ways/have critical timeframes for treatments. Hoping you find a solution to your dilemma,
Ginger

Hi @ees1 While you can always use the search function to re-find a post, what I do is highlight the post, save, and then past it to a word doc and save it on my computer where it will be easiest to find for me later.

I am sure others will have some other ideas!

Scott, @ees1 -
Have you tried Bookmarking it? There is a banner icon for "bookmark" next to the heart icon? When you bookmark something, you just go to your profile and find it in your "My Bookmarks".

You can go to Mayo without an appointment but be prepared for longer waits for your first or primary provider appointment and then testing and other provider appointments. You may have to be a "checker" which means you check into a department and then wait to see if you can be worked in due to cancellations or other circumstances that allow them to get you in. This may involve checking in first thing in the morning, waiting there all morning then first thing in the afternoon and waiting again then repeating until you get in. Your best option is to ask one of those frustrated physicians you have been working with to refer you to Mayo. Referrals help expedite your appointments.

Hello Bobbi, I was able to self refer myself to Mayo to a neurosurgeon. I spent 3 years going to local surgeons who turned me down because they could not connect my symptoms with my imaging. I think that was a factor in my acceptance at Mayo. I was reading medical literature and found a paper by a Mayo neurosurgeon that mentioned some of the unusual symptoms I had, and when I looked up a term in that paper, I found other unusual cases in medical literature like mine. I contacted Mayo on the website, and when they called me back, I asked to see the surgeon who's paper I read. I got in after a one month wait because of a cancellation, so I came and he offered to help right away. I sent a copy of the medical literature with a letter describing the symptoms along with my imaging to this specific Mayo surgeon. I had surgery and I'm doing well. You need to have a Mayo clinic patient number before they can see you because they have to track all the records. I would also recommend having your physician refer you. I probably could have had a neurologist refer me and I would have come back to her if needed. It was the review of my imaging at Mayo that got me in the door. They take cases on the basis if medical need first.

My cardiologist naively tried to contact Mayo Cardiology-Rochester scheduling and was told that I had to self-refer. His clinic staff might have had a better way to provide a physician referral. My first referral had to be cancelled because of my unexpected hospital admission. The second attempt, with my previous patient registration, I cancelled the patient referral until I could travel and then requested specifically that I be scheduled with the cardiologist researcher who had more experience with my problem condition. I was happy to meet with the specialist and so many people at Mayo-Rochester and make a new plan within 5 days. I am so thankful.