Many Appointments Scheduled but Months Out?

@ajacobs3413,

Welcome to Mayo Connect, the Visiting Mayo Clinic has answer to many questions about visiting Mayo. There was a member who was in similar situation, but I can not find the specific topic / comment.

She called the appointment desk and explained her situation. They were able to help consolidate some of the appointments. If they can not help you ahead of time, discuss with provider / scheduler at your first appointment to see if able to help.

So many departments are booked months out so when scheduling the first available it is often months out.

If already have a contact person, try them first. If not sure who to call, then call Rochester's Central Appointment Office, 507-538-3270, Monday through Friday. 7 AM to 6 PM CST.

Are you traveling a long distance to Rochester?

Thank you for your response!

When I had called earlier, they said to just wait and they might update some of the appointments to be in the same week I'm there, but it's been a few weeks and actually a few were moved even farther out from August to September haha.

I am traveling fairly far, from Colorado. I don't mind the traveling/staying, I just can't really miss more than two weeks of work for the year unfortunately! I'm wondering if it would just be better to cancel and continue to try to figure out locally (although the university doctors here are at a loss, haha).

Thank you so much!

I will give you another option. Come to your first appointments, get an initial opinion (or in your case 2nd opinion) from provider and then discuss follow up appointments / tests and if any can be done locally or coordinated with your local providers. Explain the inability to keep coming back and forth to MN. Maybe after first appointment, some of the future appts will not be necessary.

It is hard to get initial appointments at Mayo, so I do not want to see you lose that opportunity.

It is harder to do tele-visits now seeing the provider has to be licensed in state where patient is. So that might not be an option, but if able to share tests from another location, might be more efficient.

Are any of the test scheduled at Mayo tests you have already had done? and if so have your shared results with Mayo?

I think it would be good to get a second opinion at Mayo clinic since they aren't able to figure out here, but it just seems like if it's just to do the one appointment and nothing else, it might be too much for all the travel!

I have shared all my results with them, quite a few of them! Around 10 spine and brain MRIs (they do them pretty frequently to monitor the lesions), along with a lot of eye tests (fluorescein angiography, fundus, oct, etc). They have those tests scheduled at Mayo but not until August and September.

Laurie,
"It is hard to get initial appointments at Mayo, so I do not want to see you lose that opportunity."
I have 3 appointments in July 2024. My first appointment was last June 2023. I saw Dr. Dahl. Through the portal she requested this recent appointment. I want to continue my relationship with Mayo. My eGFR is hovering around 25 and gets worse over time. In 2017 it was 42 and gets worse every year. If a kidney transplant is needed, Mayo is where I want to go. It's my understanding I should continue yearly checks and appointments with Mayo in Rochester to keep that relationship. Is that correct.?

I have had dizziness and imbalance for 3+ years and have seen a multitude of neurologists and other specialists with no diagnosis. I want to go to Mayo and have applied 2 times with a referral and tons of documentation, but have been rejected each time. Does anyone have a suggestion one how to get an appointment?

You can call and ask the team coordinating your schedule. In my experience, they’ll schedule out and fulfill as many orders as possible to make sure you have appointments on the books and will then try to get them bumped up to be consolidated into a shorter time period if possible.

It’s not always possible though, in which case you may need to consider if you’re willing/able to return or if the provider offers telehealth (I had that option for a few consultations, but not all).

You may want to call and check to find out how they’re handling it though because each department is different. I have found that some departments are really on top of coordinating care, will put you on a wait list, keep an active eye out for openings and reschedule you. And I have found other departments that provide little to no follow-up or assistance with that kind of thing and it’s fallen on me to call once a week to ask a scheduler to check for earlier openings.

The best case scenario (in my opinion) is when the scheduling team coordinating your appointments handles it. The second-best case scenario if they don’t do the above is to call and ask them to turn on “earlier appointment alerts” for all of the affected appointments. Sometimes you can do this yourself in the portal.

When the alerts are on, if there is an opening for an earlier appointment of the same type as yours, you and perhaps the top 7-10 people on the waiting list will get an alert to your email or phone (if text messages are on—might want to ask for that too) that there is an earlier appointment and the first one to log in and accept it gets it.

That said, I have literally never received an earlier appointment alert from Mayo, though I have from other medical systems.

@mrainne, that is a good question to ask during your appointment in July. The answer may differ depending on the department and your individual situation.