Mayo Clinic — Local services in Rochester

Our daughter had hip surgery was conducted at the Mayo Clinic Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Center in Rochester, MN. Let me start by saying that our surgeon was great and so far the surgery to alleviate our daughter’s chronic hip pain has been successful. We are very grateful for this and I give him 5 stars. However, there were several negatives to our overall experience with Mayo that people need to know about and that’s the reason for the 2 star rating overall. Due to their odd scheduling protocol, you get a proposed surgery time, but don’t find out for sure if you’re really having surgery the next day until you call a phone number at 8:15 PM the night before. Really? This is absolutely what I call “Medical Arrogance” and assumes that your patients need to have ultimate flexibility and you have none. When we came back for a post op office visit to get sutures removed the surgeon left it up to one of the Jr. Doctors to take care of it. She missed a suture, which my daughter had to point out to her. She did have a suture removal kit but seemed ill prepared when one of the sites started bleeding. She fumbled around looking for something to stop the bleeding and finally found a likely not sterile piece of gauze and simply dabbed the site before closing it with steri strips. No alcohol, or other cleansing agent was used. Two days later back home we discovered it was infected. We had to properly clean up a pus filled, blood soaked site with sterile gauze and alcohol and reclose with our own steri strips. At no time during our office visits did we see a nurse. I think a nurse would have been helpful in this situation and more adept at the proper cleaning and care of a suture site. After surgery, we had a prolonged yearlong battle with United Healthcare insurance over payment for one of the procedures. We had to appeal their denial decision three times. Again, our surgeon was very helpful in providing letters to make our case (and his) that the procedure was proper and justified. However, the business side of Mayo and their billing office were absolutely worthless. They were nice enough on the phone but they told us we had to do the appeal. Later we found that they should be the ones doing the appeal. They claim that filed a first appeal but that is totally incorrect. They simply responded to a request for documents, which is not the same as filing an appeal. When we requested that they file an appeal they rudely said no we’re not going to do an appeal and you just need to pay your bill. In other words, we just want your money! I can’t believe that they had no interest in defending their own surgeon who was being accused by the insurance company of performing an undiagnosed procedure that was “not well studied, safe and effective.” Eventually we prevailed against the insurance company by getting an external review. This occurred with no help at all from the billing/business side of Mayo. They didn’t care whether the payment came from insurance or the patient. They just wanted their money! To make matters worse, after they were paid by insurance they delayed issuing us a refund. I had to call and bug them twice to get them to issue a refund to us for the money we had already paid them. Clearly, they have no concept that not only are you a patient but you are...

In March of 2013, my daughter went from having roughly a siezure a year to having them almost daily. We weren’t finding any answers so we wound up getting in to Mayo, Rochester with high hopes since they have such a great reputation. We met with an initial doctor (Bodensteiner) in the neuro/epilepsy unit and liked him and what he had to say. We were promised we wouldn’t leave there without a diagnosis and treatment plan. They ran some tests and then admitted her for observation. Some nurses were nice but some were VERY snotty and rude. My daughter was under 24 hour camera watch. I would go get a cup of water periodically or run downstairs to get my meal. One of the times, the nurse came in and very sarcastically said to her, “Doesn’t he realize that every time he leaves the room, we have to come down here?” Um, no, because I was never told that. I can’t follow an instruction I was never given. Then what was the camera for? After that they gave me attitude any time I had to leave the room for something. After 3 days, she finally had a siezure and it didn’t show up on the EEG so they were non-epileptic. They (Kuppka, sp.) came in and told us very coldly that she’s fine and to go home. Also, he told her she would be all right to drive (she’s 15 and can start driver’s ed.). Uh, excuse me, no she can’t. Luckily, she’s smart enough to know that’s not an option right now, but I didn’t appreciate him telling her that. We had asked them repeatedly about POTS syndrome for her as a cause and it fell on deaf ears. Before we left, I had a few questions that I wanted to ask because I felt we gained NOTHING from our visit. The doctor called our room and cut me off mid question and said, “I’m not here to argue with you.” In no way, shape, or form was I arguing. Because I was confused about our no diagnoses and no treatment as promised, I was arguing evidently. I was just asking what we were supposed to do. So, we went home and I called and left a message for Bodensteiner to talk with him about how we didn’t get a diagnosis nor a treatment plan and to please call me. I got a LETTER about a week letter saying he called my daughter’s pediatrician and the letter “unsaid” everything he told us in the initial meeting. I guess he knew he would never see us again after that first meeting. And why would he return MY call to someone else? I’m not sure how this place got to be known as the gold standard for medicine because EVERY person I know that has heard our story that has been to Mayo also, has nodded their head and told me basically the same story back. I have had handfulls of people tell me that Mayo either just said “keep doing what you’re doing” or “you’re fine”. Do they EVER come up with their own diagnosis and treatment? After looking through forums, we took my daughter to an actual POTS doctor in Chicago and guess what, POTS DIAGNOSIS. Gee, thanks Mayo. And the true irony is that THEY discovered POTS at Mayo. I would do more research on the internet for other places before settling on there. It was nice to get that bill from them for $28,000 for rude nurses, unfeeling doctors, no diagnosis, and no treatment. I will...

First class medicine? World renowned physicians? Good joke, Mayo. This institution is a far cry from the level of care and expertise that made it stand out as a first rate facility in the past. Mayo is too busy herding people in and out like cattle and raking in the funds to take the time to really care about anyone. Seems like they want the "run of the mill" cases instead of the challenging ones, because it's fast and easy, and they can get more easy cases in and out the door (and billed for) quicker.

I sent all of my records there, yet nobody bothered to look at them in the 4 weeks leading up to my appointment. Flew out to Mayo with 2 family members (we all took vacation days from work, had to take a plane, etc) We were in and out of Mayo in 1 hour ...after Dr. Ahlskog in Neurology refused any testing or care (on any level). Told me I had to come back in 2 months for tests due to a procedure I had done by my current physician recently that would negate the results of the test.

Had somebody taken 2 seconds to review my records, they would have known I had this procedure done and then scheduled my appointment for 2 months later. Your doctors may be able to afford to fly anywhere on a whim for absolutely nothing, but the average person cannot. A patient would have no idea of the parameters of a test they didn't even know existed.

Not only did Dr. Ahlskog actually yell at me and my family while we were there, he became incredibly defensive and unprofessional if we questioned him on ANYTHING he said throughout the appointment. Apparently we are not allowed to ask questions about our own health.

For instance, he told me he did not believe I had what I was diagnosed with (and been receiving treatment for) a year ago, but when I asked what he thinks I might have, he said, "not that." and refused any further explanation. When I showed him medical records I brought (since he didn’t read the ones I sent) which showed multiple emg results that prove significant neurological problems, he said they were “irrelevant.” At one point he told me to go home and GET A PHYSICAL. LOL! yeah doc, I flew my family and myself out to Mayo without ever getting a physical or seeing any other doc on the planet. When my mother expressed concern over me ending up in the hospital for an extended period of time like last year, his response was "I guess we'll deal with that when it happens" .......um, what?

Further, I wrote a 3 page professional letter to Mayo's patient experience office (leaving my emotions out of it and just stating the facts of what occurred during the appointment) detailing the callousness of Dr. Ahlskog, and after a week and a half they sent a generic form letter in response which in no other words stated, "We're sorry you’re disappointed with your visit. Thanks for your input and have a good day."

After reading many other reviews, I feel stupid for "going with the herd" in thinking this was a great place, rather than reading the reviews ahead of my visit and canceling. Sure would've saved me a lot of time, money, and hope. Seems like a lot of other people shared the same...