I don't expect the latest and greatest from my local county hospital -

[hedgehog]

anything serious gets referred to a hospital in Syracuse which has the trauma center, children's wing, cardiac center etc. But setting aside the tiny rural hospitals, is there any difference between the teaching hospitals in the nearest metro center and the big names like Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, etc? I hear of people going to them only to be told pretty much what their local doctors already told them.

[Downwinder]

1. I came away from the Mayo profit center in Arizona no wiser

than when I got there.

[GeorgeGist]

4. You were scammed ...

The Mayo Clinic is non-profit.

[Downwinder]

5. They made a good profit off of me.

[Lifelong Protester]

2. Our experience at Mayo has been very good

so I can't say a negative about them. They have bought up all the clinics around here, which I am told is not good (too monopolistic). The advantage is that if you are in a local and something is really, really wrong, you are already 'in' with the Mayo Clinic.

For all medical care, I have found that you have to be your own advocate-keep file folders of information on what you have had done, results, etc. My spouse drives me crazy with this, but it pays off!

I would say, it all depends on what is/you think is wrong with you. For many things, the local is just fine.

[jwirr]

3. Small hospitals like the one in our community do not have specialists on call for the ER so they

have to refer patients to larger hospitals. We tend to go to the larger hospital in the first place when we have an emergency. As to your question. I used to take my daughter to the University of Iowa hospital for care. My local doctors understood what was wrong with her but it was the UI who knew how to treat it. As she grew older I could take her to the Duluth Clinic with its wide range of specialists and they now handle her case. Difference - not much.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. For most things, no

for very specialized issues, such as Chrohns and celiacs or rare conditions, there is a difference.