I HATE LabCorp

baloneydisc · February 2011

I'm not sure if I updated you ladies when I had my RPL & everything else run, but I went to LabCorp because that's who my RE uses for these things (the only b/w they run at their office is betas & P4).

I called on a Wednesday (this was over a month ago) to see which boxes to check to set up my appointment for a Saturday and was told I don't need an appointment. I told the girl I needed a Gluose Tolerance test & she told me just make sure you're here by 9:30 (they close at noon on Saturdays). SOOOO, I fasted & DH & I went to LabCorp at 9am on Saturday. After about 1/2 an hour I was called up & told that they could NOT run my labs that day. I had to have them all run on the same day because they were on the same slip & they don't do GT on the weekend. I told her I had called & she said it didn't matter, they don't do them then. So DH got his drawn (chromosomal testing) and we left.

I had to take Monday off from work (I believe this was 1/17) to get all of my testing done. I had to do it Monday because she wanted to check P4 & I was 8dpo at the time. I got there around 9am & signed in. When I got called back the first time the tech (a guy named Nate) looked at my order & said "lord, honey I don't know if we're gonna be able to get enough out of you for all of this. Be right back, I gotta get some more tubes." Including the GT, my RE had checked off 15 tests. So he comes back with the vials & gets started. He is pressing so hard on the needle in my arm that it hurts. I told him & he said something like "sweetie just be calm, I don't want to have to stick you again if this vein stops working". I was positive he had gone thru my vein & I was going to bruise. He draws over a dozen tubes (I stopped counting) and he has me drink the sugar water for the GT test & sends me back to the waiting room. I told him (and it said on my lab slip) that my RE ONLY wanted my blood tested after 2-hrs, she didn't care about the inbetween tests. He told me they don't do things like that, I'm just going to have to do all of them (so 2 more draws than I really needed).

So I go back to the waiting room and less than 10-minutes later I'm already bruising & my arm is starting to feel sore. I end up getting the rest of my blood drawn (once by another tech, twice by him) & leave there at 1pm. I get lunch, run errands & go home. When I get home that day, there is a message on my voicemail from Nate. He's so sorry, he DROPPED 2 of my vials & I need to come back in. I call the next morning and tell the girl who answers the phone what he said. I do need to fast, but they're not going to make me wait. I go in Wednesday for that draw.

When I get there the girl asks me which arm & I told her I was going to let her choose. I take off my jacket & show her my EXTREMELY bruised arms. He busted thru my veins in 3 different places. I could barely bend my arms they hurt so much. She calls in the girl from the front desk to see. Front desk says "OMG. You had Nate, right? This looks like his work, but I've never seen it THIS bad" they both giggle. New girl draws 2 vials & sends me on my way.

I see the RE on 2/3. She says they don't have me or DH's chromosome testing back yet, but sometimes that takes awhile & they'll call on it. Everything else is fine. She prescribes extra Folic Acid & Progesterone suppositories.

RE's office calls me today. LabCorp never did my chromosomal testing. They admitted to her about dropping my blood, but said I came back in, so they ran that. Apparently, they completely ignored the chromosome panel on my lab slip & never even drew the blood for that!! I have to go back in.

My RE's office is now filing a complaint on my behalf (complete with the pictures I took of my arms the day after my original appointment). They also recommended I file a complaint. For the RPL & other tests my RE wanted run I have now already had close to 30 vials of blood taken (OB ran some of the tests before my LabCorp debaucle) & now I have to go back! Granted it's only 1 more vial, but this will be my FOURTH visit just to get these tests run!

Sorry this is so very long. I'm beyond angry with them and there's nothing I can do about it. I have to finish the bloodwork there, but I am NEVER going back. If you finished this you deserve a little something. Drinks

labbylover03 · February 2011

Wow! I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that! I can't believe they screwed up so much....I agree, you should definitely file a complaint.

kthappy76 · February 2011

How unbelievably frustrating and unprofessional. I'm glad you are filing a complaint. This character should not be drawing blood if he has a pattern of doing this to people. I'm sorry you had to go through that, and again. Ugh.

prncschrsty · February 2011

Sounds about right! I hate LabCorp. I'm so sorry you had to go through that.

When I had my three hour Glucose test done they stuck me for every hour instead of leaving something in my arm for the three hours I was there.

peppersnic · February 2011

WOW, that was HORRIBLE!! I will tell you that my Mother works for LabCorp as a Exectutive and just to let you know they DO fire ppl when things like this happen. She has told me horror stories about things the phlebotomist do. Sorry you had to go thru all that and that it still isn't over. GL and hope that made you feel a little better. Not that I want to see anyone lose a job, but there is an art to drawing blood and some ppl just don't have the skill!

STL34 · February 2011

I'm so sorry you had to go through all of this. It is terrible. There is no excuse for all of those problems! I hope you finally get your testing completed and your future blood draws go much smoother.

I had to go to LabCorp because my previous clinic (I guess I will be going back there for another cycle) doesn't draw blood in office and my insurance only covers LabCorp and a couple of local labs. I had nothing but bad experiences with the LabCorp near the clinic. There is another one I can use if I don't have to have blood drawn the same day as an RE appointment and it was fine.

Before I started going to LabCorp, I tried going to this small lab closer to my clinic that was covered by my insurance. There was usually no wait and the lady was quite nice and left very little bruising. However, they killed my blood two times in a row and told my RE that I must be having problems (i.e. hemalytic anemia) and should see my Rhuematologist immediately. I called my rhuematologist and she had me go in for an entire blood panel. Everything came back fine (actually better than normal). So, I decided not to go back to the other lab.

pennylanehd · February 2011

I'm so sorry you had to go through that...as a complete needle-phobic, this sounds like my version of the seventh circle of h*ll. I'm with the PPs who have had awful Lab Corp. experiences, although I find all lab experiences pretty bad. My husband rightly pointed out the folks who work at facilities like these aren't really trained beyond the minimum, so you get a lot of variation about how much a person cares about their job and whether they go above and beyond to actually have a good bedside manner. Again, how awful!

baloneydisc · February 2011

Thanks ladies. I hate the everyone has had bad lab experiences. The woman I spoke to at my RE's office (I don't know her title, but she's not my nurse) said they stopped using Quest because they were having these sorts of problems with the local Quest office.

I did find out (after my first draw) that my PCP's office will draw ANY labs as long as I have the slip. Unfortunately that doesn't help me for this time, but I'm going there if I have to have any more huge blood draws.

I did finish filing the complaint. Nate was very nice and alot of the people leaving the office were saying how awesome he was (I did wonder if my experience with him was just because of how much blood they needed, but he did the same thing to me when he got 1 vial of blood for the GT test) but I hate to think of anyone else going thru what I went thru.

bhead81 · February 2011

Sounds like my experience with Quest labs. I have had to have my PTT test run 3 times in the past 2 days due to errors at Quest. They also cannot seem to get my APA panel right. I did that one for the 2nd time today.

chizzle09 · February 2011

I'm so sorry you had to go through that! That was really unprofessional. I've had issues with LabCorp before. I had one technician bruise the hell out of my arm and she was really rude about it. I'm glad your RE's office is also filing a complaint, that's ridiculous what they did. That technician should be fired!!