Mayo for Ongoing Care

I’m not familiar with Cardiology, but I think it depends on the department. I have seen providers after I already had existing diagnoses. The vast majority were one-time consultations, but a very small number were open to follow-up for continuing care. One person said if I “ever returned to Jacksonville” and wanted to proceed with the testing he suggested, I could contact his office.

The vast majority of my appointments were considered one-time consultations. I’m not really sure how you’d be able to ask someone about it directly. You could try calling the main scheduling line and ask to be connected to the department. I’ve found that some staff are more amenable to responding to that type of question than others. There’s also not a guarantee they’ll see you if you submit a referral, so you might start there and see what happens.

Hopefully the other moderators or members have some insight. Wishing you all the best.

Hi @palni,
This depends on the your condition, the department and Mayo location where you are seen, and your personal preference.

For example, some specialty clinics, like the Fibromyalgia Clinic are consultative clinics at Mayo. This means that patients receive an evaluation, education and a recommended treatment plan, and then return to their local PCP or specialist for ongoing care.

In practices like Cardiology, Cancer, Transplant and others practices, some patients choose to continue their ongoing care and return to Mayo Clinic for followup regularly. While other patients prefer to continue followup with the local provider.

I'm tagging members like @karukgirl @danab @jeanern01 @deb2018, who have been to Mayo Clinic for cardiology. They can share their experiences with followup and ongoing care with you.

Palni, I believe you are being seen at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, so I'll also tag fellow Mayo FL members like @donnab213 @caryns @fourof5zs @lindes @ees1 @nancy82415 @edithmiller to offer their tips and support.

@palni I get ongoing care from Mayo Clinic in Rochester for cancer and endocrinology. My partner has ongoing care from Urology. As Colleen @colleenyoung mentioned there are other departments where I have received care on a one or two time consultation basis.

Hi Pal @palni Welcome to Connect, I was first introduced to Mayo from an EP Cardiologist in my local area that I had been seeing for over 5 years and my general Cardiologist I have been seeing for 18 years. Which in my case are in the same state Arizona as Mayo Phoenix. I had an ongoing problem with my old heart of Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) due to an enlarged heart from a bad virus that caused fluid to build up around my lungs and heart. So, 10 years of treatments including a pacemaker difibulator was done at another Cardiac Clinic and the Hospital he was associated with. When my heart was showing more sever signs of rhythm problems my EP (eltro physiologist) was running out of ideas to keep the arrythmias under control via ablations and medication so He referred me to Mayo clinic for an evaluation.

At the time I had just finished an ablation at another hospital in the Phoenix area and my doctor arranged for me to be transferred to Mayo by ambulance to at least get evaluated. Well his decision was right on as my heart got worse and my care was transferred to Mayo more as a circumstance that I was getting worse and I was there to be evaluated for a Heart transplant. I ended up not leaving Mayo this was late November 2017 and I got approved by Christmas and a Heart became available Jan 5th 2018.
So to answer your question, now 6 years later I go to Mayo for anything transplant related and other things as needed that require a Hospital. I still have a local Cardiologist that if I have a problem where time is essential I have Him available. and he sees me a couple times a year. Once a Year I go to Mayo for a yearly check-up on the transplant related areas and they work with my local doctors like a team of sorts. I live 70 miles from Mayo so regular things of a general health area are handled and referred from my PCP locally, as an example I just had my 5-year colonoscopy today with a doctor not associated with Mayo and referred by my PCP.
I will add tho that my overall health is also monitored by Mayo as my Team their likes to say Once a Mayo Patient Always a Mayo Patient. Kind of like a family. Now like I mentioned if anything in my case is associated with the transplant and requires hospitalation I have gone to Mayo if time was not a factor and if it was most likely I would be transferred. This has happen 3 times where I had a virus that was hard to find so it was 5 weeks at Mayo with all the different specialties at hand to find this pesky virus. It had them baffled for a bit but Mayo has a will not give up attitude which I really love. Ended up being a very rare lung virus that did not enter the blood stream. Only sign was fevers. They had to rinse my lungs with a solution and analyst the fluid extracted to find it. Once they knew I was discharged within a week of taking a special antibiotic. the other times I had low platelets and needed transfusions while in the hospital so it was handled by the hematology dept on hand staff doctors who working with my transplant team solved that issue.

I hope you are seeing that I have regular doctors I see all the time but when needed consults from other departments are always a quick call across campus. It's a great system. I remember in that mystery virus case I saw literally every single department came to consult. as they checked every organ in my body looking for that virus and most times it was less than a day when they would come by and evaluate the situation.
Even during my transplant days, it was found my thyroid was failing and so they called that specialist, and they came right over.

So I hope that kind of answers your question. I tried to get into a local clinic for my PCP once but they were full up. So I recommend them if your insurance covers them as that's another issue. as the saying goes the best are not always the cheapest so not all insurances are accepted.

From reading the comments, I see that each case is different. I was referred to Mayo in Rochester by my cardiologist here in upstate NY and was treated in Rochester, I had a septal myectomy. After discharge, I was again cared for by my home cardiologist and have had no real contact with Mayo at all.

Hello there @palni,
I extend my welcome along with others. That's a great question, and it looks like others have chimed in already. If I may add my experience to their list?

@colleenyoung gave you information that is right on in my opinion. From what I have learned, the Mayo Clinic offers people many options for diagnosis, treatment, surgery and being followed post-op. In some cases, you are sent home with a big 'ol packet of information to share with your hometown doctor. You got what you needed and your local doctor can move forward with your treatment plan.

But if you happen to need a little more hand holding and want to be certain you are ready to be turned loose again to your own doctor, Mayo Clinic, in my case, offered to monitor me and I even got to "meet" Dr. Steve Ommen online for his input in my post op course.
I was having trouble adjusting to certain meds after open heart surgery. This wonderful man helped me get through med changes and eventually told me to go off completely. I had lost confidence in my local options after my not-so-positive adventures in HOCM. After being at Mayo Rochester, I was spoiled and was afraid to be cut loose completely. They held my hand until I was ready to let go. It's like once you are in with Mayo...you are in for life! And that is what I experienced. I got my life back and am forever grateful.

I am in the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy support group and found them to precious and invaluable before, during and after my open heart surgery journey. May I ask what brings you to Cardiology at the Mayo Clinic?

Continued support was not available or encouraged in my case. After a month or two I was told to consult with my regular cardiologist on issues.

Hey there @walkinggirl,
An official welcome to Mayo Connect. It looks like you joined last month and I don't see where you got a warm welcome...I want to call you "tip-toe girl" because I missed seeing you!
Gosh, how strange you were not able to have Mayo continued support after you left. I had my septal/papillary myectomy the year before you. I wonder if something changed in that year?
Were you able to use the patient portal for any questions?

Hi Debra, Yes, I did use the patient portal for about a month, maybe two, after surgery. I developed blood clots two-three weeks after surgery. My regular cardiologist ordered an ultrasound and prescribed Eliquis which I took for 4-5 months. I also developed severe dizziness/lightheadedness with some vertigo which lasted about 5 months. Mayo suggested a change in Metoprolol to the time-release form (SUCC ER) which made no difference. To make a long story short, after experiencing syncope twice, and 3 local hospitalizations at 2 hospitals, I am now the very, very happy wearer of a pacemaker/defibrillator. No one seems to know what caused the very scary dizziness and syncope, perhaps premature ventricular contractions (PVC).

One of the issues I have with both Mayo and my cardiologist here is that I should have been told what complications could occur and how I would know that I was experiencing them. One cannot go by "things don't feel right" because nothing feels right during the first weeks post surgery.

I am an active 77 year old, go to the gym, walk about a 20 minute mile and do 10,000-20,000 daily steps, ride a bike and generally extremely happy with the outcome.

I live in Minnesota and go to Rochester (less than 2-hour drive). I go to Mayo for anything that is related to my lungs since I have multifocal lung cancer and I require ongoing treatments. I also have pulmonary fibrosis with breathing problems. Multifocal lung cancer is a subject of research at Mayo and locally they would not have the expertise.
Because of my breathing problems I went to Mayo for Consult on whether my five-year colonoscopy was worth the risk. Locally I would have needed my primary doctor to approve me for anesthesia and given my lung/breathing issues that was iffy. Mayo did it in the hospital.
Otherwise for non-lung issues, I go to doctors locally.