1. "Your wife has received great coordinated care in a particular department for a specific condition. You would like to now seek care in the General Internal Medicine department. Do I have that right so far?"

My wife sought a second opinion at Mayo for a recommendation from a South Carolina gastroenterologist. The first opinion was from a surgeon in my hometown that did not feel surgery was needed and that he disagreed with the original diagnosis that she have gastrointestinal re-sectioning surgery. The gastroenterologist wanted a second opinion. Long story but she met with the gastro-surgeon group team at Mayo and they were in agreement that her condition really wasn't diagnosed correctly and that they agreed with the first surgeon's opinion that a different action was more in order. This saved a LOT of unnecessary and invasive surgery.

2. "Because General Internal Medicine is not accepting new patients at this time, it was suggested that you seek an appointment with Mayo Clinic's Complex Care Program. Here is more information about
– Mayo Clinic Complex Care Program https://www.mayoclinic.org/complex-care-program"

One of my wife's specialists agreed that her set of symptoms was out of his wheelhouse. He agreed that she had ridden the medical-merry-go-round too many times and that a collaborative diagnosis was needed to get to the root of her chronic condition. He agreed to submit a referral to Mayo but wanted more specifics as to the group that I thought I had read about. I started at the main switchboard and was directed to another department. That department felt I should contact the General Internal Medicine department and I was put in touch with someone in that group. That was when I learned that the service we are seeking were no longer available eventhough mentioned on the Mayo website. - maybe I should check back in several months and see if anything had changed but more than likely diagnostic services that she needed may not ever be available.

I was directed to a person in the Complex Care Program as maybe they could help but had to leave a message. I will be patient as that only occurred today. In the mean time, I visited the same link that you mentioned. It concerns me that the site seems to address professional medical practices as a way to enable them to operate more efficiently as getting to root cause is accomplished faster than just stumbling around. From the site, "If your employees or members of your medical plan are experiencing fragmented care, ineffective treatments, potential misdiagnoses or difficulty accessing specialized care for complex conditions, Mayo Clinic can help."

We are not an employer or administrators of a medical plan but just individuals trying to find our way. We respect Mayo and have made the 10 hour journey to Florida for her first positive encounter. That has led us to believe that Mayo has the "fire power" to make a diagnosis from which a treatment plan could be constructed. Accessing those tools seems to be beyond our abilities. Any help in finding the correct path will be greatly appreciated.

Mary & Dan in South Carolina