03 Sep 08 Former Employee Speaks Out
Here’s an email that I received from a former employee of LabCorp. She worked for a company that was acquired by LabCorp. Her name and department was removed to protect the innocent.
Labcorp sucks as an employer as well….They acquired another lab called Dianon Systems in Stratford, Ct and as of that point treated their employees like crap. When employee after employee left to find another job their position was never filled, therefore making the employees work for dirt cheap and like dogs!! Yet they brag about job opportunities. I am ever so grateful that my position in the XXXXXX department was eliminated..It is giving me an opportunity to find employment from a company that cares for their employees..Their lab stinks and so does the CEO who says their is an open door policy with him. I never got any replies from him when asked when the employees will lose their job due to the acquisition..We had no chance to save for the medical insurance that was discontinued 2 weeks later…..
Tags: LabCorp Employee Stories, LabCorp Executives, LabCorp Jobs, labcorp unethical
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I am currently employed at the Labcorp Lab in Elmhurst. I am a witness to the incompetent Group leads and the filthy Lab.
This place is a dump. Management only focus is Results turn around time . That means anything goes.Mismatch labeling of Patient’s specimens, drivers preparing specimens to be tested, Specimens and Patients’ health information not protected. This place is unhealthy for it’s employees and customers
Try the complaint deparment and see if you get any response.
George Lincoln Rockwell founder of the American Nazi Party. Rockwell was born in Bloomington, Illinois,at the old Mennonite Hospital the oldest of three children. His father, George Lovejoy “Doc” Rockwell, born in Providence, Rhode Island of English and Scottish descent, and his mother, Claire Schade Rockwell’s was German and French. Both parents were vaudeville comedians and actors. Some of his father’s acquaintances included Fred Allen, Benny Goodman, Walter Winchell, Jack Benny, and Groucho Marx.[2] Rockwell later claimed he acquired his public speaking skills due to his upbringing. His parents were divorced when Rockwell was six, and this led to him spending his youth partly with his mother’s family in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and partly with his father’s family in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Here, he developed a passion for sailing and fishing.My sister Susan was born the old Mennonite Hospital in the same birthing room many years later.She and I both worked at the Labcorp Lab in Elmhurst. I am a witness to the incompetent Group that leads and the filthy Lab.If you call 1 800 3220467 late at night,and punch the buttons to say you want your results Tell them about this great web site!
I will agree that the management is terrible, sucks is probably a better word. The employees of the Dallas TX lab are a good caring group of medical professionals that are stck in a bad situation. Yes there are stories of errors but unfortunately no one ever takes the time to say that any place is doing a fine job, only that they suck. The Dallas lab is in flux right now due to management changes. Unfortunately Labcorp is a publicly traded company. Therefore, profit drives the company. Unless the Wall Street mentality changes, and I am sure it will not, we are stuck with a corporation that is headed by sales staff and acountants and not medical professionals. With the departure of Jesse Simpson, manger for the region, Dallas was left with a vice president that has now done 4 separate tours of duty with Labcorp. Even the previous lab manager was escorted out of the lab by security about 5 years ago when it was learned she was working to form a competing lab. Since that lab closed 2 years ago, she was welcomed back as if nothing happened. She is now gone and it is a good thing.
When it is understood that just the Dallas lab handles over 400,000 samples in a month and problems exist with about 60 (lost or lab accidents) one must accept that the percentages are outstanding at worst.
No company will ever get 100% of anything correct 100% of the time. 99 99% correct seems to be at least acceptable to me, unless you are one of the 0.01% with a problem. Are you that good at your job??? I really doubt it.
Can anyone tell me who is the head hancho in the Dallas lab, after Jesse Simpson?????? I will like his email address too if you have one. Thanks.
Bert Koch. He is the one that has done 4 tours with Labcorp but is totally out of touch. He is a political person that has never worked a day in the lab. He appears to be useless.
I work in the Tampa fl lab. The place is dirty, disorganized, way to many errors are made. And the only thing our vp Rudy Mendez cares about is turning out work. He screams,yells and swears at employees all day long to get tests resulted now. He doesn’t care if there is a problem with the test a name error on the specimen… he wants the results out now. And because his bonuses are based on not spending the budget, working conditions here are substandard. iF THE DOCTORS DOWN HERE IN Florida saw where their cytology cases were being read they would never send them here. CAP inspectors, our own corporate people from Burlington, NC have called it unacceptable. There is no plan to move us, Rudy gets a bonus for keeping 20+ cytotechs in a leaking portable trailer in the parking lot. Which by the way Rudy’s GOOD friend Mark Doolittle owns the trailer and rents it back to lab corp at a nice profit. Mark is the Guy paid to do all maintaince on Lab Corp. He gets a salary, hires his own companies (his son and one worker) to do work. So he get a salary for being in charge of maintance, then gets paid to sub contract the job to himself, collects rent get paid to maintance the trailer in the parking he is Rudy’s Good friend at the same time for the past 30 years. I would think this would be an ethics issue.
Our specimens are labeled with barcodes, but Rudy didn’t feel we needed barcode readers. So for years we have been trying to read the numbers on the bar car and type them into the computer. Can’t tell you how many errors have been made with that. The lab is in total disrepair. There is one Man Mark Doolittle(should be Mark Do-nothing) in charge of all of Florida labs and service centers. He subs the work to his son and one other guy. Things don’t get down. They need a maintaince team. The same guy Mark Doolittle is also subcontracted to maintain offsite storage of patient information and specimens. I guess he rents storage units all over town, his wife works at them (another ethics issue) Lab corp is stuck with their 1970’s style of doing things, how they got a bad reputation in the first place.
We do not put out quality work…it is substandard. The pathologist reading the cyto / histo report are not competent in cytology…they failed their yearly profiency test. We are not turning out quality work just turning out work quickly. I have worked in two other companies and lab corp is by far the worst. More mistakes are made at lab corp in a week than than are made at quest in a year. Lab corp claims it wants to inprove their quality of work…but they are not open to any suggestion, It’s Rudy’s years of poor quality way or the highway.
Sounds like you need to find another job. Apparently, you are ungrateful to even have one!
To Also a current employee….
Not a fair statement…just because someone has a job doesn’t mean they can’t speak the truth. A lot of folks are stuck in jobs they don’t particularly like or agree with but have to maintain in order to survive. Give the guy/girl a break! By speaking the truth about the ‘mistakes, quality of work, etc’ it could be a means to a solution instead of just sitting back and collecting a paycheck and let everything continues ‘as is’… just my opinion!
Teresa Grist Is The Worst Phlebotomy Manger That Phoenix has ever had . she try to rule with intimidation , threats , wright ups , and termination . She Needs to go back to the sales dept, She has no idea how to run a dept, she is trying to turn it into sonora by hiring all of the supervisors that had left sonora, putting in more computers in the draw sites to shorten the wait times , wow , 6 computer 3 employees that will make the wait time better. she is a rocket scientist . way to go Brett Sovey . All of your Employee Love you for that ( PSTs) get her the uck out .
Way to go Bad Taste ,!! You are so right , she is the worse ever . if we could all get together ( PST ) we could make labcorp get the ( B ) out and most of her Supervisors as well . But Sally she is doing her best for us. and what about Danielle , before she went into her present position her site Tempe was in Blue bag all of the time , and she is telling us pst how to do things , Yeah right I have forgotten more about phlebotomy than she will ever know . this company is in trouble . I hope I can hold on . too many years to give up..I hope someone is listening.
HUrray, Hurray for you speaking out!! FINALLY someone with the guts to say what everyone else is thinking and so completely 100% HONEST!!! I was rifed by these arogant jerks for standing up and demanding better for my clients and for the patients. If anyone questions the quality or there backwards ways of dealing with employee’s, there GONE! The quality is down right pathetic and the way Fl mgmt treats it’s employee’s is down right CRIMINAL! Thanks for sharing the information as it will be used in court against these arogant people who think they can hide behind the truth. They will be exposed and it’s people like you who CARE and take notice who make this world a better place!!
Hurray, Hurray and keep sharing!!!
I am a Lab corp employee and I too am so upset with rhe way I am being treated.I worked for another lab that was bought out by Lab Corp. I have over 25 years experience as a Phlebo.and I am treated like sh–. They rule by intimadation, and threats to you job. We are overworked and underpaid. If we stay after 8 hours we have to take an extended lunch–no overtime! In my2 person psc we work 6 hours w/o a break.Most days we do 50 -60 pt’s before 12:00. One person drawing one person doing registration. In order to get through the day and all the work done we have, on more occasions than not worked on our lunch on our own time. Mgmt.is a joke,supervisors are just LCA lackeys. If I could find another job in this economy I would be gone in a heartbeat.But then Lab Corp would just buy them anyway. If they can’t compete with a lab they just buy them.
I am a current employee with Labcorp. I came across this website a few months ago and read all the complaints and comments and was like WOW its not just the region i work in, its across the board!! and i can relate with ALL the complaints on this site. When i started at LabCorp i knew in the first few days I had made a HUGE mistake by leaving my other job for this and i think alot of the problems expresed on this site start when you accept a job with this company. First Orientation this is SUPOSE to be a 5 days thing. Mine was maybe 3 days and NOT full days most of my time was spent sitting in a cold room WAITING for the lucky person who was drawn to it that day. Then after the less than half the orientation you go to the site you were hired for. Now its on the job training because we all know every place you work at is different and the paperwork and computer programs are all different well the girls who were in charge of this lovely task were the rudest people I ever met and they were TEAM LEADERS!! After 2 days of this training you are now ALONE to run this service center.Well 3 weeks in to my new career with this company and the lack of information given to me in my short orientation I now have a new Supervisor who knows less than I do about this company. Chain of command says to call supervisor first, well when you do they cant help you because they are CLUELESS!!! Now onto Customer Praises….we NEVER hear about those only the complaints…then we are told well if you get 3 or more complaints in one quarter you could lose your job and thats any and all complaints, I will mention a complaint I recieved and had to endure what Labcorp calls “Verbal Counceling”…and the complaint was I had to sign and wait for over a hour just to drop off a specimen, ok on paper that looks like someone wasnt doing their job, when in fact this lady walked in and there was about 16 people AHEAD of her, and that WASNT mentioned in her complaint. I am a firm believer in if you recieve bad customer service COMPLAIN, but please include ALL information in this complaint, 99.99% of the complaints this service center recieves is the wait times and the fact that more than ONE employee NEEDS to be there!!! I am one person doing the jobs of at least 3 people….1) receptionist 2) Bill Collector and then finally 3) The job I actually have a degree in Phlebotomy. Ok now that brings me to the 3 month “probationary” period of all employees. Im NOT a rocket scientist but if in 3 months you cannot do your job or have recieved complaints on your poor attitude I WAS under the impression they do not keep you and move onto the next person until your staff if Competant and polite well I dont think the underqualified Supervisors know how this “probation” thing works. When they get so many complaints for one person instead of FIRING them they MOVE them to another location where they can maybe “start over” and “talk” to them about their attitude, and the same goes for slow incompetant workers, IF after 3 months they still suck and are rude and clueless….FIRE THEM…which brings us all to this site LabCorpsucks.com and they wanna know what the problem is??? The problem is in their faces and they know what they need to do but i nstead of fixing the problems within the company all they are worried about is COLLECTING THE MONEY, MAKING YOU WORK LIKE A DOG AND HAVE THE ATTITUDE IF YOU GET YOUR BREAKS OR NOT WE DONT CARE, AND GIVING US MORE WORK TO DO AND NO RASIE OR COST OF LIVING INCREASES OR EVEN A HEY WE APPRECIATE THE JOB YOU DO FOR US THANKS!!! We employees will NEVER hear that just all the bad. The WORST thing I encountered with this company (I know what could be worse than all thats been mentioned in all the complaints already) but yes it does get worse, SOMEONE at this fine company had a brain storm one day and thought to themselves HMMMM IF WE TAKE AWAY THE 2 MOST IMPORTANT AND MOST EXPENSIVE ITEMS WE CAN SAVE MORE MONEY AND SHOW MORE PROFIT. Well the problem with the person who made this idea was THEY DONT DO OUR JOB NOR HAVE A CLUE ABOUT DRAWING BLOOD TO THEM ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY AND PROFITS. Well this person decided we didnt need butterfly needles and Coban for the patients who are on Coumadin and REQUIRE this to help the bleeding stop. Well most patient service centers service people of ALL age groups and ALL are NOT the same. If Labcorp was concerned about Customer Satisfaction why are they allowing all this to take place within their company? I cannot answer this nor would I even try to. I guess the only way for this company to see the problem is to lose major Insurance contracts and hit them where it will hurt the most and its not with the useless comment cards nor a phone call to the usless CEO…hit them in the pocketbook….Call your insurance companies and complain to them, if they get enough complaints they WILL do something about it!!! But please keep in mind NOT all the employees are BAD and that every service center gives poor customer service. I take pride in my service center and go that extra mile to ensure the patients that come here have a great experience and will want to come back and IF you go to a Labcorp and have a great experience get that employees name name and include that in your comment cards, but IF you have a terrible experience do the same get names and MAYBE JUST MAYBE Labcorp will correct a ongoing problem across the board!!! and for the other labcorp employee that commentented on Labcorp buying up all the labs, well if they lose all their Insurance contracts I guess they will have to sell them to a competent company who will know how to run such a large company. And i know why dont you find another job, the ecomomy is soooo bad right now and alot of companies are downsizing that i am glad and feel blessed to have a job, wether its its good job or not its still a job…I still have finiancial commitments and i need a job. I know something better will come along in due time until then i am doing my part to see that patients that come here get GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE and that MAYBE JUST MAYBE LabCorp will relize this before its to late.
I, too am a Labcorp employee who is not giving my name because I need my job and am scared “they” will figure out who I am. However, I can fully understand what the parson above is talking about. I have been in the field for over twenty years and have NEVER worked at a place quite like this.
Slavery was abolished some two hundred years ago, but obviously someone forgot to tell Labcorp, for slavery is alive and well in this Labcorp lab! They expect their employees to work as many hours as it takes as it takes to get all the work out in a timely manner (even while hampered by uncaring management, inadequate staffing, and substandard equipment) while following their #1 golden rule: NO OVERTIME.
In spite of that, most of us are willing to endure the conditions because we CARE about the patients, but believe me, it is a very frustrating existence.
To be fair, my supervisor is a wonderful, individual. She cares as well, but her hands are tied. However, in the time I’ve been with Labcorp, I’ve NEVER EVEN SEEN, MUCH LESS MET OUR MANAGER (I am told he is “scared to travel”). He is not a laboratorian and has no idea of what our jobs entail. Yet this bean counter sits in his big office somewhere else and makes the decisions that affect our lives and the lives of our patients. MONEY IS THE BOTTOM LINE. We can’t even order post it notes, much less updated equipment, without going through an Act of Congress. In many cases, we have to improvise to get our work done. Our building has sporadic heat in the winter, and we have to either be cold or work with our coats on. They burn us out in the Summer. We’ve had to work under flood conditions numerous times (and no, I am not exaggerating) with water literally streaming down the hall and dripping to the floors below. Uncomfortable? No doubt. Distracting? Sure. A pain in the ass? You bet. But most of all: UNSAFE. One spark caused by the lab equipment whose electrical cords were lying in the flood waters, combined with the flammable and explosive chemicals we work with could have taken out the entire building. Yet, did “Invisible Man” care? Hell, no!!! While we worked with wet feet, our wonderful leader was concerned only with getting another estimate to get the work done cheaper. It took three weeks to get the problemm fixed.
Oh, by the way, did I forget to mention that the “Big Wigs” at Corporate get bonuses that are based by the amount of money they save the company? Imagine that!
The experience took its toll. Half our staff has now moved on to better jobs, leaving those of us who are left to do what it took twice as many to do before. We will not get help until at least the end of the year, IF they can find someone and IF they will stay. In the meantime, the quality of our work remains excellent, and our turnaround time is still superb, but we are working 10-12 hour days with no vacation breaks or lunch, just to keep the work going out. And, our “reward” for our dedication is getting bitched at for having overtime. And mind you, if the work doesn’t get out in a timely manner, we get chewed out, as well. It is a no win situation.
I am on the lookout for another job. You can’t change the system and I don’t want to work in this one, but I have bils to pay and must wait for the right job to come along.
It has always been instilled in laboratorians that the patient comes first. However, since I have been with this company, I have learned that Labcorp cares ONLY ABOUT THE ALLMIGHTY DOLLAR, not the patient, and certainly not their employees.
I am formaly a Labcorp employee in Lafayette.Labcorp just bought our company in March. We have just now been in our 3rd week of going live. To be fair some of the management are not so great but its hard to expect your superviser to be ten people. Not all employees are horrible. We actually get very good response cards here. Its hard to please everyone. I focus hard on providing care for my patients rather than showing how frustrated I am. I used to enjoy my job because I knew I was making a difference in someones life until the huge change. We also have the greatest ceo here. When we needed him he was there. When we were swamped and couldnt get to stuff, he would do it. Like answer the phone. All in all is that Labcorp might be about making the money but not all labs are the same. Everywhere you go you will have the employees who are only there for the paycheck and dont care about a person… Think about it…
I posted a comment on Nov 10th and NOWHERE in my comment was any excuses to why LabCorp SUCKS!!! On Nov.30th 08 Labcorp Careers posted that we current employees of Labcorp were told to post comments on here to “Justify” the companies problems. Well I for one was NEVER told or asked by anyone at Labcorp to post anything on here. I posted my comments on here because I too think LabCorp Sucks and IF you think being a patient sucks being a employee of such a shitty company who does NOT care about their patients nor ANY BAD EXPERIENCE ANY OF YOU HAVE EVER HAD OR WILL HAVE IN THE FUTURE SUCKS EVEN MORE!! The Shittyness is across the board from the Phlebotomist all the way to the CEO of the company. I feel this company thinks that they dont have a problem therefore NOTHING TO FIX. Well until you people call your insurance companies and complain, complain, and write and complain and complain more they do not know that a problem exsists with the Lab they chose to represent them for their subscribers labwork needs. Trust me I am on your side I just happen to be employeed here.
I think our lab will be taken over by Labcorp. Can anyone tell me: do they keep the benefits you have already attained through the “old” lab? Like vacation time, salary, etc. Or, do they fire you and rehire you for less money?
Teresa Grist and her company of supervisors her in Phoenix,AZ are the the worst set of supervisors ever. Labcorp is their threats to make employees work the day after Christmas. Teresa tells you you can’t have any overtime yet when you have to work 24hours with no lunches then Friday and Saturday after you were told your your ot will be paid at a flat rate and if you were told you had to work you were an unacceptable employee.
The samples that the employees are sending out are mislabeled and sometimes knowing not the correct patients, due to the fact you do not want Teresa to come “clean house”. I can say for a fact of 5 urine drug screens that were sent out and reported back as positive that didn’t belong to the patient, just because the phleb was afraid to get fired.
The benefits stink and the paid time of is ok, you just are not allowed to use it. You will find you have to call out just to go to the doctor. It is sadly funny, I met another employee at a meeting and that was her exact comment to me. I only work at labcorp because I need a paycheck in these current times. I am looking else where for work. I also carry my two week notice with me just waiting to fill the date in. As you never know when you will get a harassing phone call from Teresa or Jennifer. Jennifer the phleb who used to steal time from work is now a pst lead telling others what to do, all because the requirement to be pst lead is to be hardhearted, you cant be nice to the employees. Ask Terri,Scott,Sally, Jeff and countless others who lost there jobs because they were to nice.