Elizabeth (Liz) A. Gilman, M.D., General Internal Medicine: Hello and welcome to the General Internal Medicine Division and the Consultative Medicine Clinic. My name is Dr. Liz Gilman. On behalf of the consultative medicine team, we'd like to thank you for choosing Mayo Clinic for your care. I'd like to take a few moments to share with you a few things about your consultation and our care team. In the Consultative Medicine Clinic in General Internal Medicine and throughout Mayo Clinic, we practice medicine as a team. Our teams include physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, fellows, residents, pharmacists and other allied health staff. Throughout your time at Mayo Clinic, you may meet with various members of this team. But all care plans are reviewed by the physician leading your care team. Our entire team is invested in your care and wants this to be a successful visit for you. Please know that sometimes we will need the input of other specialists. We will coordinate these appointments in as timely a fashion as possible and hopefully within the timeframe of your stay here in Rochester. Please be aware however that some specialty appointments may need you to return at a later time.
At Mayo Clinic we practice consultative medicine. This means that our goal is to meet with you and learn about your individual needs and concerns, work very hard to address those needs while you're here and develop a care plan for you and your local provider to follow long term. As consultative providers, we are not a replacement for your local care provider or other specialty providers at home. If you do not have a provider at home, let us know and we will do our best to connect you with one. At the end of your consultation with us, a summary document will be made available to you. This document will assist in transitioning your care back to your local care team.
Christopher (Chris) A. Aakre, M.D., General Internal Medicine: My name is Dr. Chris Aakre. We want to meet and exceed your expectations. To help us achieve this, we ask you to fill in an appointment request form. This allows us to review your situation and better understand your goals and needs and to develop an itinerary. This will be reviewed by one of our physicians. Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate all the requests we receive for care nor are we able to address all the concerns in an appointment request. Also, we may not be able to address additional requests that arise at the time of the visit. The last thing I want to talk about today is patient online services. This is Mayo Clinic's patient portal, and we encourage you to sign up for a portal account. It provides an easy, convenient way to contact your care team at Mayo Clinic and gives you instant access to valuable information, such as test results, appointment schedules and notes from your care team. If you have other questions or concerns during your visit to Mayo Clinic, please let us know and thank you again for choosing Mayo Clinic for your care.