Booking Hotel & Flight

This is always a hard decision for me. I also went to Jacksonville and I live in Illinois, so I basically needed to decide before I went how long I was willing to stay, and there’s always an inherent risk you may not choose enough nights, or you may have too many.

I think it depends on how important it is for you to get everything done within one trip. They usually try to preschedule as much as they can within the same day, but as you said depending on what the physician coordinating your care thinks is necessary, they may add more referrals to other offices and testing. Things like blood tests are easy, but if you end up needing additional imaging or receive referrals to other disciplines that have a high volume of patients like Neurology and Cardiology, you may have orders but it could be impossible to get an appointment with them within a matter of days, even if you have orders.

I think in the end it depends on your flexibility and budget. I work full time, so I had to give notice months in advance, but Mayo doesn’t work like that. I flew Southwest where changed flights are free, but I still had to abide by the time I took off from work. And I couldn’t afford the hotels on campus, and booking on a budget meant committing to a certain number of days. Leaving early wouldn’t result in a refund. Adding days was easier than subtracting them.

I ended up choosing to stay for a full week, arriving two days before my initial evaluation to ensure I didn’t have a flight delay that prevented me from getting to my appointment, and I only ended up having 2 days of appointments. They couldn’t get me anything else that I had orders for, which was disappointing.

My appointment was in one of the specialty clinics within General Internal Medicine at Jacksonville, and I’m not sure if it’s the nature of the specialty clinic I was in or General Internal Medicine (though the scheduling desk is with the same staff), but I unfortunately did not find them to be very detail-oriented or proactive about responding to the referrals/orders from my physician, which was a very different experience from when I was in Rochester. There, my physician put in orders and the scheduling desk handled everything for me and tried to schedule the tests/consults that have the longest wait times before I got there and canceled anything I didn’t need. And they immediately responded to orders after I was there; they called and sent me portal messages to notify me of scheduled appointments.

In Jacksonville, that has completely not been the case. I’ve had to personally call them (sometimes several times within one day because there’s no answer) to inquire about appointments. This is difficult because pending orders aren’t visible to patients in the Mayo portal, unlike at every other system where I have appointments. And clinics only open appointments for a few months at a time; if nothing is open during the scheduling block that’s currently open, you have to wait up to a month until the new slate of appointments opens up, which could be as much as 3 or more months away.

It’s happened to me several times that I was told “someone will call you when you’re scheduled” only for me to never receive a call, and when I did call, in the best case scenario, I was able to schedule. But more commonly—and this has happened to me at least three times—I’ll call, they tell me nothing’s been scheduled even though the orders are there, then when I try to initiate scheduling everything is booked and I have to wait a month to schedule.

For example, I was told to call on March 11th to try to get an appointment with my doctor in Internal Medicine in June. Although I have an order for a follow-up with him, the person I spoke to told me they won’t call me, or schedule it for me, and they can’t guarantee an appointment (which is the complete opposite of what my nurse told me in the same clinic).

I had that order in November and although I was there for a week as I mentioned, I couldn’t get the appointment then and still haven’t been able to get it.

I’m not trying to scare you off or anything… I just wanted to share that because I traveled to Jacksonville twice related to appointments that were supposed to be organized for me in General Internal Medicine, and it really didn’t go well. I was disappointed to stay extra days and not have things set up, and I also wish someone would have told me up front that at least for the clinic I’m seen in within General Internal Medicine, they put nearly all the responsibility for scheduling on their patients.

If I had known they don’t function like Rochester, I would have been much more aggressive about scheduling from the beginning. I will say other departments besides Internal Medicine have been much more organized and easier for me to collaborate with.

In the end, I think it depends on how much flexibility you have, your budget, and how willing you may be to return if needed. And if you end up having extra days without appointments, Jacksonville has beautiful weather and you’re not far from the beach. Not to sound dismissive, but though I was annoyed about the appointment situation, I made good use of my extra time eating and enjoying the beach.

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Hi @janeanon, appointments or testing may be scheduled during this first visit as determined by your care team and diagnosis. If additional appointments are required the schedulers will work with you to accommodate your schedule and preference. For example, it may be more convenient for you to extend your visit or return at another time. You can contact Mayo Clinic's free Concierge Services to ask about accommodation and flight flexibility options. Here's how to contact them on Monday:
By phone 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday-Friday: 507-538-8438
Email: concierge@mayo.edu

Fellow members like @beatitudes @fourof5zs @lindes @ees1 @nancy82415 @donnab213 @jc76, who have experience at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida may have more tips to offer.

Here are related discussions that you may also wish to explore:
- How to best plan and prep for my visit to Mayo Jacksonville
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/how-to-best-plan-and-prep-for-my-visit-to-mayo-jacksonville/
- First Visit to Mayo Clinic: How do appointments work? What to expect?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/new-internal-med-patient/
- Anyone have tips on preparing for initial visit to Mayo Clinic? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/preparing-for-initial-visit/

@janeanon, how soon is your trip to Mayo Florida?

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emo | @emo

That is a shame that Jacksonville was inefficient in scheduling your appointments. Your right, I have not had that problem in Rochester. If doctor puts in an order for a return appointment or lab tests at later date, I either get a phone call or a portal message telling me to call and schedule. I actually thought it was all automated because the last portal msg I received to call and schedule in endocrinology was received late on Fri night, after business hours.

Of course, availability is always an issue. either.

Hint, sometimes you can see future appts that need to be schedule on Portal under Health Record -> Care Plan. Not everything shows there, but some future tests, etc... may be listed.

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This is always a hard decision for me. I also went to Jacksonville and I live in Illinois, so I basically needed to decide before I went how long I was willing to stay, and there’s always an inherent risk you may not choose enough nights, or you may have too many.

I think it depends on how important it is for you to get everything done within one trip. They usually try to preschedule as much as they can within the same day, but as you said depending on what the physician coordinating your care thinks is necessary, they may add more referrals to other offices and testing. Things like blood tests are easy, but if you end up needing additional imaging or receive referrals to other disciplines that have a high volume of patients like Neurology and Cardiology, you may have orders but it could be impossible to get an appointment with them within a matter of days, even if you have orders.

I think in the end it depends on your flexibility and budget. I work full time, so I had to give notice months in advance, but Mayo doesn’t work like that. I flew Southwest where changed flights are free, but I still had to abide by the time I took off from work. And I couldn’t afford the hotels on campus, and booking on a budget meant committing to a certain number of days. Leaving early wouldn’t result in a refund. Adding days was easier than subtracting them.

I ended up choosing to stay for a full week, arriving two days before my initial evaluation to ensure I didn’t have a flight delay that prevented me from getting to my appointment, and I only ended up having 2 days of appointments. They couldn’t get me anything else that I had orders for, which was disappointing.

My appointment was in one of the specialty clinics within General Internal Medicine at Jacksonville, and I’m not sure if it’s the nature of the specialty clinic I was in or General Internal Medicine (though the scheduling desk is with the same staff), but I unfortunately did not find them to be very detail-oriented or proactive about responding to the referrals/orders from my physician, which was a very different experience from when I was in Rochester. There, my physician put in orders and the scheduling desk handled everything for me and tried to schedule the tests/consults that have the longest wait times before I got there and canceled anything I didn’t need. And they immediately responded to orders after I was there; they called and sent me portal messages to notify me of scheduled appointments.

In Jacksonville, that has completely not been the case. I’ve had to personally call them (sometimes several times within one day because there’s no answer) to inquire about appointments. This is difficult because pending orders aren’t visible to patients in the Mayo portal, unlike at every other system where I have appointments. And clinics only open appointments for a few months at a time; if nothing is open during the scheduling block that’s currently open, you have to wait up to a month until the new slate of appointments opens up, which could be as much as 3 or more months away.

It’s happened to me several times that I was told “someone will call you when you’re scheduled” only for me to never receive a call, and when I did call, in the best case scenario, I was able to schedule. But more commonly—and this has happened to me at least three times—I’ll call, they tell me nothing’s been scheduled even though the orders are there, then when I try to initiate scheduling everything is booked and I have to wait a month to schedule.

For example, I was told to call on March 11th to try to get an appointment with my doctor in Internal Medicine in June. Although I have an order for a follow-up with him, the person I spoke to told me they won’t call me, or schedule it for me, and they can’t guarantee an appointment (which is the complete opposite of what my nurse told me in the same clinic).

I had that order in November and although I was there for a week as I mentioned, I couldn’t get the appointment then and still haven’t been able to get it.

I’m not trying to scare you off or anything… I just wanted to share that because I traveled to Jacksonville twice related to appointments that were supposed to be organized for me in General Internal Medicine, and it really didn’t go well. I was disappointed to stay extra days and not have things set up, and I also wish someone would have told me up front that at least for the clinic I’m seen in within General Internal Medicine, they put nearly all the responsibility for scheduling on their patients.

If I had known they don’t function like Rochester, I would have been much more aggressive about scheduling from the beginning. I will say other departments besides Internal Medicine have been much more organized and easier for me to collaborate with.

In the end, I think it depends on how much flexibility you have, your budget, and how willing you may be to return if needed. And if you end up having extra days without appointments, Jacksonville has beautiful weather and you’re not far from the beach. Not to sound dismissive, but though I was annoyed about the appointment situation, I made good use of my extra time eating and enjoying the beach.

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I am going mid April.

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Sorry to hear this. I go to Rochester never had any issues

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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.

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