Blood Work Rant

Ok, so I went to have my blood work taken today for my 6 month post appointment which is scheduled for May 27.  I debated over doing it today or next Saturday and decided to just do it today.  Now, LGH is an hour away from me.  I have been having my blood drawn there, but there is a Hanover Hospital Lab facility 5 miles from my house.  I called yesterday to make sure they could do the draw.  They assured me they could do it, no problem, the codes are entered and spit out the stickers for the tubes and they have any special instructions on them-- i.e. cover and keep from light, freeze, etc.

So, I show up this morning at 7:07, just after they open, and there are 5 people ahead of me-- no problem.  The woman at the desk is nice, tells me no problem, it will take her a minute to enter everything then they will be with me.  So I wait-- for over an hour- while the three on duty talk amongst themselves over what the stickers say, whether they are the right ones, etc.  All while another person takes in every person before and after me for their work.  Finally one woman calls me back, and after saying nothing to me other than my name she says-- "Next time I suggest you go wherever your doctor sends you.  This is complicated and would save everyone a bunch of trouble."  I was taken aback and said, "well if you would rather not do this, just give me my paperwork and I will go elsewhere."  "I didn't say I wouldn't do it, just telling you that next time you should go elsewhere.  This is confusing, some have to be covered, some frozen, etc. and I am sure I am going to make a mistake since I am not familiar with these tests."

So we get to the room and she only has 8 tubes out-- I say, "Um, are you sure you have everything because it is normally like 17-20 tubes"  She checks the stickers again and pulls a few more.  She doesn't grab a bag for the light blocking ones (and had not done so by the time II left).  So then she goes to find a vein to draw from and has the nerve to gripe further that I am "Hard to stick."  I mentioned that before and even advised she could take it from my hand as most people find that easier.  But no . . .

Aaarrrgggghh-- so, I expect I will get a call or find out from Dr. Brader that I have to have some of the tests redone.  All because I did not want to drive to Lancaster.  I think, in the future, I will just plan an outlet day on blood draw day and save myself the drama.

Wow very unprofessional. That is ridiculous. I hope that she didn't mess up badly enough that you have to redo the testing. Sorry you had to deal with that.

I agree with Belinda that that was very unprofessional.  The first time I had my bariatric blood panel done, the tech pulled out a book to look everything up to make sure she had the right vials.  She never told me that I was a bother to her and to go elsewhere.  Is there a Quest Lab or something nearby that you could go to in case you can't do an outlet day?  I use Quest and have never had a bad experience.  I think I've used them in lower DE twice too when I was at the beach and got temp jobs and needed drug tests, with no issues.  I hope you don't have to have any of your labs re-done!!!

That is absolutely RIDICULOUS!  Sounds like you'll be getting a call from Brader's office saying "do it again".  Let me know and we can do the outlet day the next time around!

May I make a suggestion? I don't know your schedule, and it's not always easy to adjust it, but the Wellspan Lab at Cross keys Internal Medicine has a FABULOUS Phlebotomist. He is there 9:30 to 11 monday thru friday, and he is at Jefferson Family Medicine in the afternoon. (You would have to call to find out exact times) His name is Gary, he does ALL my WLS labs as well as all my wierd Hematology & Lupus labs. He is awesome and had sent my labs to John's Hopkins and Hershey. As long as the ordering physician is on the form, he will make sure it gets sent to him.

AND, he knows which labs can be combined in the same tubes so less tubes will be used.

I hope you don't have to do the labs again. But *if* you do, try to get to one of those 2 labs. I PROMISE Gary will take great care of you. And tell him Jodi from CK, sent ya.

Hope this helps. There is no sense in running to Lancaster when I KNOW there are 2 labs close to you that will take care of you!

She sounds like she should be in another line of work.  You might want to send a letter to her company's office manager with this same information and ask that this person be counseled in her public relations skills.

I'd hate to see anyone lose their job in today's economy, but you are at least entitled to a professional approach to a medical problem, and she didn't do that, either.

Best wishes,

BEYOND unprofessional.  And it's unacceptable. COMPLETELY unacceptable.

I will say, however, that the less # of tubes sounds about right....there are MANY of our labs that can be combined in certain tubes...so the fact that you've had 17+ tubes pulled before is certainly not needed.  I think mine are about 7 or so, and even some of that is extra....

Hopefully the other lab suggestions will help you so you don't have to go all the way to lancaster, although an outlet day isn't a terrible idea, lol

Wow! I would be making serious phone calls!! I get Dr Brader's slew of labs drawn too and it is usually 12-15 tubes a year. I use  Lab Corps and while I hate them most of the time (more for the fact that they loose things and send them to the wrong lab - the lady that does the blood drawing is great!) she covers tubes in foil, adds special labels and is so accomodating! I am sorry you had to go through all that

Thanks everyone.  Jo- thank you especially for the new lab suggestion- I will go there next time.  I was just so taken back by the manner in which it was delivered.  Had the woman been nice and said, I am sorry, but this is new to me, I have never had to take these labs before, etc. And even, I am sorry it has taken so long, but we don't do this often, it may be easier for you if you go where the doctor sent you, etc., I would not have been irritated at all.  Oh well.  Now that I have cooled down a bit I am trying to chalk it up to she had a bad day.  I am still going to inform the people in charge of the location, so that hopefully it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Good for you, take action.

And PM me if you want my phone number. We can chat about things. We are so close, it's silly to just communicate on the internet! LOL. Heck I drive through SG several times per week!