Unregistered
07-21-2006, 06:58 PM
I was a nurse at St. Mary's in Rochester. My back went out and the Doctors in the Employee Health Service thought that it was a strain. Was off work for a little while but they sent me back to work when I still had pain. The first day back I hurt my back in the same place and went back to employee health. Without ever taking X-rays or doing any other test, they sent me to work hardening at Rehabilitation. I steadily got worse. My supervisor kept asking when I would be back and the rehab people kept telling me that I would have to put up with some pain. They never really believed me that the pain was excruciating. And I continued to exercise and go to rehab every day. Mayo wouldn't pay me my salary after my sick days were used up even though I was still going to rehab and trying to get back to work. At one point I actually got a letter from personnel saying I was out of a job because I had not shown up for work!
I was visiting friends in Minneapolis when I met a rehab Doc who said something else was wrong and to see some one about it. When I asked the Mayo rehab folks about it they denied there was any reason to believe that there was anything but muscle strain and wouldn't do any more tests. I went back to employee health and they wouldn't even examine me or refer me to anyone else. They made remarks that were not supportive about my "low pain threshold" and said I was in danger of loosing my job if I didn't get back to work. I asked about other work I could do and they said that RN's need to be able to work anywhere they are needed so the schedule wouldn't get complicated.
I went to my own doctor at Mayo, and he was concerned that something drastic was wrong. He scheduled some x-rays and tests and when I called back to get the appointments his secretary told me that I had to check in with Employee Health Service. When I did the Doctor there was nasty to me accusing me of going behind her back and stated that I needed to follow her plan for work hardening at rehab.
That's when I went to Minneapolis for diagnosis and treatment. My injury required major three back surgeries over three years and I am not able to work in nursing anymore. Mayo took everything I worked so hard to accomplish in my career. When I got treatment outside the system, Mayo refused to pay for the treatment and even got information from my QRC which was supposed to be confidential. I later found out the QRC felt she had an obligation to inform Mayo since they were paying the bills. I finally had to get an attorney to get the treatment paid for. I never did get my salary paid or training for a new job. Now I am limited to what I can do and even taking care of my kids is impossible with out help.
I wrote the powers that be down at Mayo and they didn't even feel obligated to answer my letters. I don't think they care about anything except how much money they make and keeping everything nice appearing. It's not nice when you have a problem. Mayo is a mean monster when it comes to helping you through a serious work injury. It's like they are perfectly willing to put you through every test known to man, if and only if, insurance is paying. When I was a nurse, we saw a lot of that, and sometimes the patients didn't even survive the tests that were not necessary! But when Mayo is on the hook, look out. They go back to stone-age medicine. Even my personal Physician couldn't order the tests he believed I needed because I was on employee health. I could tell he was angry and even said that the people in Employee Health are high ranking in administration, work closely with Personnel and made it clear to him, through his department administrator, that he was to "keep hands off" my case.
My advice is to stay away from employee health at all cost and to get an attorney the moment Mayo refuses to pay for treatment or salary from a job injury. And don't confide in your Rehab folks either because they copy everything to Mayo personnel and Legal gets it from there. Even "outside" QRC's were giving personal information to Mayo which ended up at legal who refused to pay for disability. Since Mayo is self- insured, everything they don't pay out adds to the bottom line and to administrator's salaries. The place is corrupt. Don't believe a thing they say.
Sorry I worked at Mayo.
I was visiting friends in Minneapolis when I met a rehab Doc who said something else was wrong and to see some one about it. When I asked the Mayo rehab folks about it they denied there was any reason to believe that there was anything but muscle strain and wouldn't do any more tests. I went back to employee health and they wouldn't even examine me or refer me to anyone else. They made remarks that were not supportive about my "low pain threshold" and said I was in danger of loosing my job if I didn't get back to work. I asked about other work I could do and they said that RN's need to be able to work anywhere they are needed so the schedule wouldn't get complicated.
I went to my own doctor at Mayo, and he was concerned that something drastic was wrong. He scheduled some x-rays and tests and when I called back to get the appointments his secretary told me that I had to check in with Employee Health Service. When I did the Doctor there was nasty to me accusing me of going behind her back and stated that I needed to follow her plan for work hardening at rehab.
That's when I went to Minneapolis for diagnosis and treatment. My injury required major three back surgeries over three years and I am not able to work in nursing anymore. Mayo took everything I worked so hard to accomplish in my career. When I got treatment outside the system, Mayo refused to pay for the treatment and even got information from my QRC which was supposed to be confidential. I later found out the QRC felt she had an obligation to inform Mayo since they were paying the bills. I finally had to get an attorney to get the treatment paid for. I never did get my salary paid or training for a new job. Now I am limited to what I can do and even taking care of my kids is impossible with out help.
I wrote the powers that be down at Mayo and they didn't even feel obligated to answer my letters. I don't think they care about anything except how much money they make and keeping everything nice appearing. It's not nice when you have a problem. Mayo is a mean monster when it comes to helping you through a serious work injury. It's like they are perfectly willing to put you through every test known to man, if and only if, insurance is paying. When I was a nurse, we saw a lot of that, and sometimes the patients didn't even survive the tests that were not necessary! But when Mayo is on the hook, look out. They go back to stone-age medicine. Even my personal Physician couldn't order the tests he believed I needed because I was on employee health. I could tell he was angry and even said that the people in Employee Health are high ranking in administration, work closely with Personnel and made it clear to him, through his department administrator, that he was to "keep hands off" my case.
My advice is to stay away from employee health at all cost and to get an attorney the moment Mayo refuses to pay for treatment or salary from a job injury. And don't confide in your Rehab folks either because they copy everything to Mayo personnel and Legal gets it from there. Even "outside" QRC's were giving personal information to Mayo which ended up at legal who refused to pay for disability. Since Mayo is self- insured, everything they don't pay out adds to the bottom line and to administrator's salaries. The place is corrupt. Don't believe a thing they say.
Sorry I worked at Mayo.