Find a new watering hole; the wait time is too long
Our last two visits will be our last unless they become the last lab in the county. My last visit was 2 hours and 20 minutes! The time before that exceeded two hours for my wife, who recently received a stage-four bone cancer diagnosis. (Metastatic breast cancer) Needless to say, a two-hour plus wait is simply too long and too disrespectful for all the old folks, who is the bulk of their clients, who need their service.
I've tried to contact management by phone, but I'm still waiting on the return call.
Since that last visit, we've found a new lab in SLO that accepts appointments. Morro Bay's lab is 15 miles closer, but we still saved about an hour on our first visit. For us, the saved time an increased comfort of our car padded seats was worth the gas for the extra 30 miles for the round trip, but we usually have some business in SLO, so in the final analysis, it just makes good sense for us.
On the surface, Dignity Health's decision to cut staff to the bone makes little business sense. Their overworked staff has been great and deserved better than to be verbally chewed on by angry customers, which I witnessed during my last two visits. They no longer have a receptionist to do the paperwork; it is left to the phlebotomists to do. Just hiring a receptionist and letting the blood drawers do their work might solve the wait-time issues instead of having multiple customers announcing to the world they're going somewhere else as they walk out.
Edited: I received a call from a Dignity Health manager after I posted this review. She was very nice and polite and said changes are expected that will reduce wait time. read more