Longroad,
Sammantha went to Duke....
I wanted to add the reason I "voted" for Hopkins was due not only to the consistently great way I'm treated there, but also because Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein is there, and his reputation is that he is the very best ALS doctors, especially in the field of research.
Obviously Mayo is great, I was given the choice by my referring doctor to go to either facility, and, another influence for my decision at the time, was reading on a couple of different message boards, how patients had come away from Mayo not feeling cared for, that even if the expertise was there, the human side wasn't. I'm sure this can happen anywhere given the right (or wrong) set of circumstances, but this stuck with me and did help guide my decision.
My own experience was that once I was in the Hopkins medical system, they have always treated me kindly, they're efficient, ... I can't say enough good about the administrative support staff, and their doctor's and other specialists are tops. There just hasn't been any negatives. The doctors come out to the waiting area to get you themselves, you're not shuffled off to an exam room only to find you're just being held there as the next step in the queue. My exam, especially the intital one, was very thorough, amazingly so.
I have not actually seen Dr Rothstein, I have not asked to, I'm happy with the primary care neurologist who I do see.
Robert (Planningguy) is goind to Mayo soon, and I'm sure he'll report back to us about his experience.