When you are not treated properly you usually have the ability to go to another service provider that will give you satisfactory service. That is the beauty of a democratic system that allows free enterprise to compete for your business. It allows you to vote with your dollar. The best service provider wins and those with inefficiencies and lack in service disappear. Well that’s how it is supposed to work, in theory. Here’s a letter I received from a patient in Virgina. Unfortunately, due to restrictive insurance rules and insurance company’s zeal to work with the lowest bidder, the free enterprise system does not exist when it comes to reference labs, such as LabCorp.

Here’s a letter I received from John that details his experience at LabCorp Virgina. He sent this letter to LabCorp managers:

The following is an email sent to LabCorp to complain about the services provided at one of their locations. To date I have not received a response from LabCorp nor do I expect one.

This morning 29 May 2009 I visited one of your facilities located at 805 BATTLEFIELD BLVD N, CHESAPEAKE, VA 23320, Phone: 757-547-4892. I arrived and signed in at 7:50 AM, at that time there were 8 patients, including myself in the waiting area. Of these 8 patients, 7 had not yet been processed by the technician at the desk. I waited in the waiting area for 40 minutes, during that time 2 more patients were processed at the desk and only one patient was called to the back for sampling/processing. At 8:25 the tech at the front desk left, stating she was supposed to gone by 8:00, and no one was there to replace her, if you recall there are still 5 patients waiting to be in processed. At this point I left the facility. I will try ANOTHER LABCORP facility later today. The only reason I would ever set foot in a LabCorp facility again, is that my insurance requires the use of LabCorp.

This is not the first occasion of slow or non existent service at this location during the morning hours. I visit this location in the morning on my way to work and I have NEVER been met with prompt service. If this office is aware that they are busy in the early morning, would it not make sense to staff for this, or maybe they just don’t care. From the attitudes of the front desk clerks I believe the latter is the case.

I worked in health care for 20 years as a hospital corpsman in the US NAVY. I have spent many years in a clinical setting both in a lab environment and a pharmacy environment. I can tell you, if we provided the level of service provided by this particular LabCorp facility, changes in management and staffing would have been forthcoming immediately. This facility provides terrible customer service and is a disgrace to your company.

I am available for further discussion at XXX-XXX-XXXX. I would greatly appreciate a response to this communication, either written or verbal

Thank You in Advance
John XXXXXXX

Making a lab error on a blood test can have a serious impact on a life. I don’t know if LabCorp employees don’t care, or if they are simply numb to the impact of their lab errors because they rapidly run through so many blood tests. This is part of their “quantity is more important than quality” problem.

I received this email from Natasha today. I don’t know what I would do if this LabCorp lab error occurred during a blood test on my child. It is devastating news that no one should have to endure as a result of a lab error.

Angelman Syndrome - Click for Large Image

LabCorp diagnosed my son with a rare genetic disorder called Angelman Syndrome by a Methylation blood work test. This syndrome is characterized with mental retardation, lack of speech, and seizures just to name a few symptoms. Our family was devastated, and we grieved for months.

When he got in to see a neurologist, he ordered another test to get more information about which type of the syndrome he may have. This test came back negative. We were shocked, but tried not to get our hopes up too high because we did not know which test was accurate. When we finally got in to see the geneticist, he ordered another round of genetic testing, this time a more detailed test called a cgh, as well as the original test. All negative.

LabCorp told the genetic counselor that they think they switched his blood. For privacy reasons they wont tell us anything, but assured her that they would try and find the child who really has this condition. As relieved as we were to have the good news, we are so angry for this mix up happening in the first place. Months and months of our lives were taken from us, and I still have not received one phone call from Lab Corp. We are unsure how to proceed from here. Anyway, this is an EXTREMELY abbreviated version of the story. Please let me know if you would like more information, I will do anything to help, no family should go through what we experienced.

My recommendation to Natasha is that she find a lawyer and sue LabCorp for punitive damages. A blood test lab error of this magnitude should be sufficient grounds for a lawsuit. One that I am sure LabCorp would settle quickly before the news quickly spreads and their testing service loses even more credibility.

The days between getting LabCorp’s lab results and finding out about LabCorp’s error were probably Natasha’s worst days of her life. No health services provider has the right to do  this to anyone. It’s obvious that Laboratory Corporation of America understands money, so they should pay for their mistake. In addition, government regulators should step in so that this never happens again.

Even in this economy, LabCorp jobs are available. So what does it mean when you have a down labor market yet LabCorp still can’t find all the phlebotomists and technicians it needs? Maybe it’s the low wages they pay or the constant turn over that they have because of management issues?

U.S. labs employ 309,000 clinical workers, including 145,890 medical technicians who’s job entails running simple diagnostic tests, and 163,270 medical technologists who perform more complex tests. Technicians in the United States earn an average $17.36 an hour, or $36,110 a year. Technologists make $25.20 an hour, on average, or $52,410 a year. Technologists  require training comparable to that of a nurse, but earn less and have less chances of advancement. Besides low wages, job issues also compound the LabCorp problems.

Hospitals employ 97,370 medical technologists, that’s nearly 60 percent of the total. They also employ 64,300 technicians, or 44 percent. Hospitals tend to pay better for these jobs and therefore demand higher standards.

What does it all mean? Just read what their employees are saying in LabCorpSucks.com and that will give you an idea of how they feel about their employer. Another problem at LabCorp is the disproportionate amount of male to female managers. While a majority of the techs are female, the majority of the managers are males. It’s ripe for government action and sanctions under anti-discrimination laws.

This is an email that I received from Debbie. She sounds like a wonderful mother who feels for her son who will unfortunately have to give blood again. Just as bad is that LabCorp is attempting to charge her for their own mistake.

Just frustrated that I received a call from my pediatrician who told me that Lab Corp ran the wrong blood test on my three year old.

 Unfortunately, they had to stick him twice to get a good vein. All the trauma and crying was for nothing, as they didn’t follow the doctors orders for the test. Now, I have to phone them and argue about payment. We have a very high deductible since we are self employed, and I believe we should not have to pay for a test that was not needed. Wish me luck.

Here’s a recent story from the Winston-Salem News. LabCorp’s clear violation of the HIPAA laws is of grave concern. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, releasing medical information to someone that has not been authorized to receive it is punishable by up to $10,000 per incident and prison time. The only problem is that out of tens of thousands of complaints filed, the government has fined just a handful. Well here’s the LabCorp HIPAA violation, which is probably happening on a daily basis.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — April 11, 2009, A Triad medical company said it mistakenly faxed almost a dozen pages of personal patient information to the wrong number.The lab test results were sent from LabCorp, and were meant to go to Winston-Salem Health Care. Instead, they went to Leigh Ambruso’s home insurance office.

“I don’t know how to read test results,” she said. “I know enough to know I wasn’t supposed to have this information.”

For six days LabCorp sent information from about 12 patients to Ambruso’s fax machine. Originally, she said, she didn’t think anything of it. “I just want people to know this is happening,” she said.

But the faxes kept coming. Ambruso said she explained the error to someone at Winston-Salem Health Care who was supposed to get the information. “She said, ‘Do me a favor and fax them to me,’” Ambruso said.

She said she finally had enough and realized the fax was violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). “I said, ‘If you send me one more fax, I’m going to call the patient and tell them I have their personal information,’” Ambruso said.

One of the patients….William Dull said he was anxiously waiting on results to determine if his cancer remained in remission. “It’s very upsetting,” Dull said. “It’s not being handled like it should be.”

No one at LabCorp would talk on camera. The company eventually responded.

“The fax number has been corrected in our computing systems to prevent similar incidents in the future,” the company said in a statement.

A Winston-Salem Health Care representative said that the company takes the security and confidentiality of patient information very seriously. “We appreciate the caller’s efforts to bring this situation to LabCorp’s attention so that it could be addressed,” a company representative said. Winston-Salem Health Care said it is still investigating the mix-up.

My problems with Labcorp started with the Miami service centers. I went through the proper channels to resolve the matter but instead of getting a resolution, I got insults and disrespect from two Miami LabCorp managers. The Miami region manager, Roberto Blanco, lied and even contradicted his own statements on multiple occasions. From my conversations with him, it is obvious that he has no clue as to what customer service and being a manger is about. He just doesn’t get it. But worst than him was the Manager of Patient Services, who’s name was Ana. You can read the full details in my own Labcorp Complaint.

I recently received an email from Jackie about a LabCorp manager by the name of Ana Garcia, who seems to have no respect for others, whether employees or patients. With poor people skills, she continues to drag the company down. When you treat employees with disrespect and try to rule through fear, the good employees will flee LabCorp, leaving the company with the bad employees that are unable to get a job anywhere else. In addition, since in her mind intimidation works for employees, she uses the same methods on patients.  While the email refers to the manager as Ana Garcia, the email did not contain the region or service center affected by her actions. My gut feeling is that it is the same Ana who called me in reference to my complaint. In my case, instead of trying to resolve the matter,  she insulted me, lied and was outright rude and disrespectful. She, along with Bob Blanco, are the reasons this web site exists.  The email clearly shows that she treats the employees as bad as she treats the patients. Her demoralization of employees leads to their poor attitude, and to LabCorp’s lousy customer service. With all those great managers available as a result of the weak economy, why would LabCorp keep these inept managers? Here’s a portion of the email that Jackie sent me.

I know two LabCorp employees, and I have a comment regarding one of their bosses, Ana Garcia (I’m not sure if it is spelled correctly, nor do I really care as she is so rude), and the patients that go to the sight. The two girls that work at this lab are really sweet, they know what they are doing, and they work so well together that the wait time is not very long.

A good amount of the people that go to this sight really look forward to seeing them, and will sometimes bring them gifts for working so hard and treating them with respect.

Another group of people will scream at them if they do not smile every moment they work, if they are asked to hold on a moment while the employees finish one of their current tasks, or because they did not take the time to tell if their insurance is taken there, etc.

There was recently an incident where a pen was thrown with great force at one of the employees because the patient was asked to leave the pen next to the sign in sheet.

As for Ms. Garcia. She very disrespectfully addressed the employees this evening over matters she explained were not personal. She told the employees there is no reason they should be late, and there is absolutely no such things as emergencies.  One of the employees had an urgent family emergency where a family member’s electric wheelchair broke down in the middle of U.S. 41 highway and needed to help her, seeing as nobody else would. Because of the emergency the employee was a bit late to work, and was thoroughly screamed at for what Ms. Garcia claimed was very unimportant. If that was your family member, I’m sure you would help them rather than leave them stranded on a highway.

Ms. Garcia also screamed at the workers for not smiling every second of their day and told the employees that her complaints were not personal, but at the same time she called the man who works there ugly to his face, and made another employee cry.

If the bosses of the company were not so rude to their workers, it is possible that the workers would have different attitudes.  Something needs to be done about this Ana Garcia, she should be fired but I’m not sure who to speak to.

As I stated above, the workers at this LabCorp sight try to give their all for you, but the bosses make it really hard for them. Thank you

LabCorp in Orlando, Florida seems to be a big mess. It seems that Mickey Mouse can probably do a better job
with patients than LabCorp’s Orlando employees. Here’s an email I recently received from Debbi about her
husband, a former LabCorp patient.

We had a similar experience with Labcorp here in Orlando. The wait is ridiculously long. Their staff is short. They got my husband’s test wrong and he had to go back. They didn’t get the results faxed to the doctor. He had to be on the phone with them several times to get them to get the results to the doctor. When he went back a second time to re-do the test, the lady who was in charge was rude and hurried and did a horrendous job taking the blood. He said he’s never had that kind of experience with a blood test before. My husband who very seldom gets angry at people, was livid. Our endocrinologist had sent us there for some reason. We prefer Quest which is only a few buildings down from Labcorp. Quest makes appointments. The wait is reasonable. The staff is professional and they always have several staff working together at the same time.

We will tell our endocrinologist that we will not be going back to Labcorp.

Thank you, Debbi in Orlando

I received this email from a Texas Labcorp patient. Ironically, this is how my problems with LabCorp started. In her case, the LabCorp employee actually waited for her. In my case they threw me out 15 minutes before closing time. Just like her, the supervisors failed to return the calls. In my case when I finally spoke to them they stuck up for the employees and called me a liar.  It looks as though the employee attitude, lack of response by manager and finally the insults are a chapter in the LabCorp training manual.

Oh, my, gosh!  Where do I even start??!!  My experience took place on January 13, 2009 in Dallas, Texas on Garland Road.

I asked my doctor to call the Lab Corp (in network with United Healthcare) that was just around the corner from the hospital at 4:45 to make sure that someone would be there when I got there before 5:00.  I could tell that my doctor was having a problem with the person on the other end of the line when my doctor kept insisting that I would be there momentarily and kept saying that she would greatly appreciate it.

When I got to Lab Corp, it was 4:55 and the woman was waiting outside the door for me; please keep in mind that the business does not close until 5:00.  When we walked in the door, she screamed at me, “Is this an emergency?”  Like it was any of her business!!!   When I sat down to have my blood drawn, she kept venting that she couldn’t believe this was happening to her and that she should already be on her way home.  I asked what time they close (different locations close at different times) and she said 5:00.  I tried to explain to her that it was just now 5:00 and I got there before they closed.  She insisted that was not correct according to her time. 

I have NEVER been treated the way this lady treated me!!!  She was extremely rude!!!  I was beside myself.   I was in my car, on the phone with my doctor’s office, complaining about the experience at 5:02.  Had the woman just done her job and stopped complaining that she had to stay until 5:00, she might have actually been able to lock up at the correct closing time of 5:00.

The very next day, January 14, 2009 @ 10:35 a.m., I called Lab Corp to speak to her superior.  I left a message for her to please return my call.

After waiting two weeks, I again called Lap Corp on January 27, 2009 @ 9:55 a.m., to speak to her superior (the superior of the superior).  This time I got names.  The first lady I left a message with was Kay Hipshman.  This time I left a message with Mike Alvarez to please return my call.

It is now three weeks later, February 18, 2009, and I still have not heard from anyone.

Signed ~

A very disgruntled patient

They did it again. Losing the trust of patients one at a time. That should be LabCorp’s motto.

Here’s an email I received from a lovely lady that WAS a regular LabCorp “customer”. I use the word customer instead of patient as I believe that LabCorp locations look at patients as customers and how much money they can extract from them, instead of patients (as other health care providers do). Maryann is well educated and is also a service provider in the health care industry.

Both my daughter and I get our bloodwork done about every 3 months.  She is diabetic and they are watching me closely for diabetes type 2.  We entered a full waiting room and when we signed in were told that there were 4 in the back so the wait should be only about half an hour.  At 9:45 my daughter was called in and I followed her in.  She is an adult but likes me in with her for moral support.  The tech was anything but nice to us.  He had an attitude a mile long.  He TOLD me to go back to the waiting room that he would call me.  I did so but was seething.  He did not have the right to remove me, only my daughter had that right.  I took my paperwork from the line up and when my daughter was finished we left.  I’ll go somewhere else and get mine done.  This man obviously has problems and can not contain his anger or attitude.  As an LPN, I would NEVER treat a family member as he treated me today.

 

The lab is in Sun City West just across from Del E Webb Hospital.

 

Maryann XXXXX

 

PS:  I am making a formal complaint to the BBB here.

This is an email I recently received from a LabCorp employee. If you are familiar with workplace drug test laws and LabCorp drug testing policy, please post a comment with your recommendations. They are appreciated.

“I was recently told that I needed to take a drug test. The following is what happened.

I was called in to do a drug test and K–, my immediate supervisor, handed me a cup and told me to go into the bathroom. So I did. I wasn’t worried, because I hadn’t taken anything. During my Drug Test K– left out of the room leaving someone else there (that was not administering the test) and came back to complete my drug test. There were other drug test sitting on the table that were done before mine. Later, I found out I was suppose to seal the lab bag, but I didn’t, K– did, I guess after I left the room (not sure). I went back to my meeting. It just so happen that E– (the employee K– said she wanted to give my job to) was there on the day of my drug test and several other days, which she was suppose to be on medical leave of absence.

With K– and my history (we do not have a good one), I do not feel as if she was the right person to be giving me a drug test. I don’t know.

Almost three weeks after the drug test, K— told me that she needed a copy of my prescription medication Adderall, she said that Adderall showed up in my drug test. That extra test were run to determine it was Adderall. She also said that copy of the prescriptions was missing from my personnel file. I told her that Adderall could not have showed up in the drug test, because I have not taken any Adderall. I told her that I have been taking Phentermine and asked her if she wanted that prescription. She said “no”. I immediately requested another test. I was never contacted by a Medical Review Officer or “Loss Control” to determine about any medication that I was taking.

I told K– that I would get a copy of the prescription, since she said that would clear me. I went to my office and called Wal-Mart to get them to fax me over a copy. I was in the hall and — asked me again about the prescription in front of another employees (unprofessional behavior?). I told her that Wal-Mart pharmacy had just opened and they said it would take about 30 minutes to get the copy. I decided to go to Wal-Mart and get the list my self. I went to look for K– and she was out side smoking with T– and N–. I told her I needed to go to wal-mart for a minute to pick up something. She said that was fine. I went to Wal-Mart and got a copy of my prescription medication and placed them on Ka–’s desk.

She called me to her office and told me that the copy from the pharmacy would not work and said all I needed to do is to find the original bottle with the original date on it and bring it to her, and I could keep my job, otherwise I would be terminated, she would have to notify the board of nursing, and that I would lose the rest of my vacation and sick pay. She knew I was about to take a week off for Christmas.

The next week, I took the Phentermine bottle to her. She said, ” Is this the bottle.” I told her no, but this is the Phentermine bottle, which should have showed up. She said, “Keep trying to find the bottle.” A few hours later, I brought the original Adderall bottle to K–. She was at lunch, so I left the bottle with Ch–, and asked her to get K– to call me. Ch–, DON called me later and said K– said the bottle will not do because I should have brought the bottle right in and it did not have any medication in the bottle. I told her to tell K–, I did not take the medication. (I had the extra medication from the bottle, but I did not know I needed to give it to K–. They were taken out of the bottle before I took the bottle to K–.)

I have been getting phone calls that, K– has been telling people she fired me for failing a drug test, that I was taking my childrens’ Adderall (K– did not know that my children have not been on Adderal in over 4 months or that I do not take the medication due to a reaction it causes on me.), and that her and HR has already fixed one drug test for me (I thought it was against the law to fix a drug test??). Other employees have also seen my drug test results on the fax machine, she has been making phone calls to other management about me with employees in the office.

I believe they know I am a single parent and have to keep my job, so they could do what they want and I would not quit.

What is the drug testing chain-of-custody?

No one had ever asked me for a list of my medication or if I was taking anything. Was this appropriate for her to have mentioned my test results in front of someone else? HIPAA?

How do I find out if they are DOT regulated? How long does it take to for the results of a urine drug test ?

Why would Adderall be showing up instead of the Phentermine? Would something else be causing the Adderall to show up?

Please help me!! I do not know what to do!! My reputation as a nurse and my children is what really means the most to me. I worked hard all those years and all I care about is that everyone knows I am not the worker they made me out to be.

What can I do???? If anything???

LabCorp is the ones that ran the test!!”