diff --git a/balancer/catabalancer/catalyst_balancer.go b/balancer/catabalancer/catalyst_balancer.go
index 6e5c0c2c..a107832c 100644
--- a/balancer/catabalancer/catalyst_balancer.go
+++ b/balancer/catabalancer/catalyst_balancer.go
@@ -9,15 +9,18 @@ import (
 	"sort"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
+	"sync"
 	"time"
 
+	_ "github.com/lib/pq"
 	"github.com/livepeer/catalyst-api/cluster"
 	"github.com/livepeer/catalyst-api/log"
 	"github.com/patrickmn/go-cache"
 )
 
 const (
-	stateCacheKey = "stateCacheKey"
+	stateCacheKey  = "stateCacheKey"
+	dbQueryTimeout = 10 * time.Second
 )
 
 type CataBalancer struct {
@@ -27,6 +30,7 @@ type CataBalancer struct {
 	ingestStreamTimeout time.Duration
 	nodeStatsDB         *sql.DB
 	nodeStatsCache      *cache.Cache
+	cacheMutex          sync.Mutex
 }
 
 type stats struct {
@@ -136,7 +140,7 @@ func (c *CataBalancer) UpdateMembers(ctx context.Context, members []cluster.Memb
 }
 
 func (c *CataBalancer) GetBestNode(ctx context.Context, redirectPrefixes []string, playbackID, lat, lon, fallbackPrefix string, isStudioReq bool) (string, string, error) {
-	s, err := c.refreshNodes()
+	s, err := c.refreshNodes(ctx)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("error refreshing nodes: %w", err)
 	}
@@ -291,10 +295,28 @@ func truncateReturned(scoredNodes []ScoredNode, numNodes int) []ScoredNode {
 	return scoredNodes[:numNodes]
 }
 
-func (c *CataBalancer) refreshNodes() (stats, error) {
+func (c *CataBalancer) getCachedStats() (stats, bool) {
 	cachedState, found := c.nodeStatsCache.Get(stateCacheKey)
 	if found {
-		return *cachedState.(*stats), nil
+		return *cachedState.(*stats), true
+	}
+	return stats{}, false
+}
+
+func (c *CataBalancer) refreshNodes(ctx context.Context) (stats, error) {
+	cachedState, found := c.getCachedStats()
+	if found {
+		return cachedState, nil
+	}
+
+	c.cacheMutex.Lock()
+	defer c.cacheMutex.Unlock()
+
+	// check cache again since multiple requests can get an initial cache miss, the first one will populate
+	// the cache while the requests waiting behind it (with the cacheMutex) can use the new cached data
+	cachedState, found = c.getCachedStats()
+	if found {
+		return cachedState, nil
 	}
 
 	s := stats{
@@ -307,8 +329,11 @@ func (c *CataBalancer) refreshNodes() (stats, error) {
 		return s, fmt.Errorf("node stats DB was nil")
 	}
 
+	queryContext, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, dbQueryTimeout)
+	defer cancel()
+
 	query := "SELECT stats FROM node_stats"
-	rows, err := c.nodeStatsDB.Query(query)
+	rows, err := c.nodeStatsDB.QueryContext(queryContext, query)
 	if err != nil {
 		return s, fmt.Errorf("failed to query node stats: %w", err)
 	}
@@ -366,7 +391,7 @@ func getPlaybackID(streamID string) string {
 }
 
 func (c *CataBalancer) MistUtilLoadSource(ctx context.Context, streamID, lat, lon string) (string, error) {
-	s, err := c.refreshNodes()
+	s, err := c.refreshNodes(ctx)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("error refreshing nodes: %w", err)
 	}
diff --git a/balancer/catabalancer/catalyst_balancer_test.go b/balancer/catabalancer/catalyst_balancer_test.go
index e9862d2c..4f5f2a06 100644
--- a/balancer/catabalancer/catalyst_balancer_test.go
+++ b/balancer/catabalancer/catalyst_balancer_test.go
@@ -391,7 +391,7 @@ func TestStreamTimeout(t *testing.T) {
 	nodeStats := NodeUpdateEvent{NodeID: "node", NodeMetrics: NodeMetrics{Timestamp: time.Now()}}
 	nodeStats.SetStreams([]string{"video+stream"}, []string{"video+ingest"})
 	setNodeMetrics(t, mock, []NodeUpdateEvent{nodeStats})
-	s, err := c.refreshNodes()
+	s, err := c.refreshNodes(context.Background())
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 	setNodeMetrics(t, mock, []NodeUpdateEvent{nodeStats})