Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Marys Campus — Attraction in Rochester

June 6, 2022 Updating my review from 1 star to negative stars My mom has a feeding tube and was forced to put on a mask while being moved to another room. OBVIOUSLY there’s a huge gap between her face and the mask. But Mayo wants to play Pandemic rather than Use Your Brain and everyone has to play along if they want medical care.

It doesn’t matter how great your doctors and staff are or how advanced your treatments are when you completely disregard the human need for contact with their loved ones. My mom just had a severe stroke, is barely conscious, English is a 2nd language, and is alone right now because of Mayo’s ridiculous covid visitor restrictions. It’s been 2 years. We’ve all had Covid and/or the vaccine. Time to move on. The hospital we were transferred from understood the severity and allowed us all to be with her. This place wouldn’t even let one person sit in the empty waiting room near her overnight much less in the room with her, and will only allow 2 people in their entire hospital for one patient. How many patients in the last 2 years has Mayo forced to suffer alone? Disgusting. I wonder if Mayo policy makers get kickbacks from the multiple surrounding hotels since they force families out of the hospital and those people are forced to spend hundreds on hotels. Don’t bring your loved ones here.

08/30/25 update Their billing practices are, IMO, predatory. My mom was unconscious for most of her stay at Mayo. Their Billing wanted us to sign a financial waiver that said if insurance didn’t cover something that my mom would agree to pay it. I know from experience that this includes situations where they are at fault,(their contract with the insurance will hold them liable in those cases, not the patient, unless you sign the waiver, which overrides their contract with insurance that protects you), so I refused. I feel like they were watching us because my family was taking turns staying with her, and every time a new family member arrived, a billing rep arrived shortly after with that same financial waiver that I refused to sign. I previously had read through my mom’s entire insurance contract and I knew insurance would cover almost everything, but it irks me how sneaky they are with this specific document, so I refused on principle alone. I said we would sign an altered document that we would be responsible for things insurance didn’t pay for, but not if the reason insurance didn’t pay was due to something they did wrong. They refused & LIED and said they couldn’t submit claims to insurance until it was signed. Ok… insurance won’t allow you to submit cIaims until the patient signs a waiver waiving the protection insurance gave them?? They also threatened to send her to collections, which I believe is illegal when an attempt to bill insurance hasn’t ever been made. They sent my mom multiple bills for over $100k (which I believe is also illegal to not submit claims to insurance for payment before billing the elderly) and she would freak out every time, so after about 5 months, I finally had to cave and sign the waiver, out of fear it was stressing my mom out too much. If it was my own bill, you can bet I’d still be fighting with them now, 3 years later, because it’s wrong and I’ve seen several people fall into financial ruin thanks to signing this type of document and being in a situation where they just want to get medical care and will sign anything to get it, even when they don’t understand what they’re signing. Also, I found it hilarious that when I tried to call billing for like the 10th time for an altered waiver, they stated they couldn’t talk to me due to privacy, even though they freely took my calls every time before. Okay, I’m not okay to talk to, but my signature would’ve been good enough to sign away my unconscious mom’s billing rights? Makes a whole lot of sense. I submitted a complaint to the attorney general but it required additional info and paperwork from mom, who was paralyzed and still recovering from her stroke, so never pursued it...

I'm thankful they tried their best. But on the other hand, being alone watching my father pass away while sitting in a room with a large family who had not only that room but a private room that a family who's family member's not doing so well can use and I had to do my best to hold on a brave face in front of people laughing and enjoying themselves as their loved one got better and better and even had both of his girlfriends show up and discover he's been cheating like mad, meanwhile I was wishing I had some silence and alone time as I had to make the decision to pull the plug. I did not get to use that small private room that the other family just used to store their clothes and stuff until their family member was moved out and even then I had to break down crying saying I have to decide to let him live or not and I just want to be a lone for a moment please. I have a strong feeling I may not have been so scarred from the experience if I was able to be alone during the hardest parts, especially sitting by people laughing and playing with kids screaming and running around. I did my best to be near my father, but at one moment we locked eyes and for the first time I saw pure dread in him and that will be with me forever now. He's always been strong and I hate that I stepped out for a minute only to return with him having a tube shoved in his throat and our last words being "I'll be back in a moment, I have not eaten" and his last words to me was "Okay, can you get me a diet soda?" ..... he never got to drink a soda again.. I will say though that once the plug was pulled and as his liver and kidneys failed they administered morphine to him to the point he simply felt tired and went to sleep......... Okay, My Mom's in the hospital right now and I've been thinking about my Dad while doing my hardest to keep my Mom alive and hoping for rent, but I did not realize I was logged into my Father's account... This.. hurts... I'm worried about my mom and missing my Dad... But my psychiatrist dropped me for doing suicidal. She didn't say that, she told me to wait a week before making my next appointment and in that week I got a letter stating that they don't want me back and that I should seek out "real" help. So do research. Only one person in that whole building is a psychiatrist and she's the one who wrote the letter telling me not to come back for being suicidal. (I told the woman I'm NOT suicidal, but if I were in a bank and it was being robbed, I would not mind dying from jumping in front of the bullet and she started asking me questions basically forcing me into planning a suicide I didn't want to talk about until I got very triggered. (That used to be a word for us with mental problems. I mean triggered by what it meant. Not the PC whatever that people need to just grow up from). Anyway,...

I was very impressed with everything from much newer tech than up north. (Lakewood in Staples MN spent a ton of money to double the building size, yet they are still using the same technology from 2005 when they moved there. It was a tiny clinic 10 years before that. They were also the type of clinic that dished out the drugs to my hypochondriac sister. Either than or the place is a miracle worker and has cured several incurable diseases. :P So if you read this far, I recommend this place above the 10 plus clniics and hospitals I've been to...

Obviously the healthcare here is top notch. It is the best in the world. If this review were based off of the quality of healthcare alone it would be 5/5. However, when you take into the account the bedside manner of the surgeons and doctors as well as the administrative side of things my rating has to drop because it is rough.

While I have generally had a good experience with doctors in the Mayo Clinic Clinics the surgeons and doctors I have interacted with in the main hospital have all been quite rude and unhelpful when it comes to answering questions. They definitely run off of the time is money motto.

The worst part about the Mayo Clinic, however, is the administrative systems they have in place. Because man it is abysmal. As far as customer service for setting up and managing your online portal, there is basically nothing. I have been on hold for 5+ hours several times, which is unacceptable when the portal is how you literally do everything and where you get your test results cause lord knows they are not gonna personally call you. Further, I have also notice that I have been passed along several time for unnecessary appointments for the sole purpose of driving up the bill, which is already expensive. I do not mind working with residents, after all it is a teaching hospital, but to get sent to three different specialists for no reason who all say the same thing for a very simple medical issue multiple times is just sad. I know they have to pay the bills but it shouldn't have to come from milking patients and their insurance companies. Maybe it would help if they didn't install crystal chandeliers and have granite and marble everywhere.

So in short, go there if you have something serious because they really are the best of the best. For literally anything else go to a clinic or another hospital. You and your wallet will have a much...