Has anyone had problems with Quest Diagnostics?

Posted by bluegill @bluegill, 3 days ago

I've had two bad experiences with them. The first one was just mildly bad. Workers were gossipping in front of me, saying things like "the sample wasn't labeled and no one knew what it was, etc., just as they were about to draw a blood sample from me.

I survived that episode.

But today they royally messed up. It was supposed to be a urine test, which they were going to send to Mayo. When I got there, there was only one guy in the whole building, he knew nothing of the request that had been faxed to them weeks ago, and he claimed he had no access to the fax machine. So, I peed in a cup anyway, and he stuck a post-it (that's right, a post-it for a label; it was pink) with my name hand-written on it, and he put it in a box and said his supervisor could deal with it later.

Several hours later, I got a call from someone at Quest saying they can't do the urine test I need because "they don't have the right tube."

My local medical "team" is killing me.

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glenninjb | @glenninjb | 1 day ago

I really don’t like Quest - the impersonal nature of the office, no one there to answer questions, talking to a kiosk to check in. I started going to the local hospital outpatient lab. Test results there are available same day, my docs have online access, as do I through the patient portal. People in the outpatient lab are friendly, helpful, and skilled at their job of drawing blood.

zzotte | @zzotte | 1 day ago

Quest it’s not bad, but I have changed locations a couple of times

Zzotte

northoftheborder | @northoftheborder | 20 hours ago

I think everything people are posting about Quest applies to any private lab, in the U.S. or Canada. Some are good and some are bad, often even within the same chain.

Private labs are sometimes located more conveniently, but they ship your sample away to a central location to be tested, which introduces delays and a (small) risk of loss or damage.

Hospital labs might be further away from your home, but their staff works under stricter standards, your samples are often tested onsite, and the results go straight into your chart without needing to be retyped. In some cases, you'll have a result by the time you get home from having your blood drawn.

So it just depends on which pros and cons matter to you.