I always like to start off with a complement: the Bowie LabCorp office looked clean. That's the only good thing I have to say about our visit.
Last month, I took my two year old daughter to our local LabCorp to have some blood tests done. Our pediatrician had advised us to call the local office, ask for the most child friendly technician they had, and make an appointment. So I called the office and the voicemail listed another number to call to make an appointment. That turned out to be an automated voice recognition system. That design does not bode well, but there was no alternative option. After what felt like an eternity of grappling with that phone system, we had an appointment.
The next day, we arrived on time for the appointment. But the receptionist ignored us. She took people as they arrived in the office, not by their appointment time.
Forty-five minutes after our appointment time, we were finally called back to do paperwork. The receptionist handed it to me without giving me time to review it. I looked it over and then went back to her to question whether my two-year-old should really be the responsible party for payment should our health insurance not cover it all. As punishment for questioning her, she let the person after us take our appointment slot with the technician. When I questioned her if she was really skipping someone ahead of us because I questioned the paperwork, she just replied "yeah". Then she insisted that she was right about the two-year-old being the designated payee.
Fifteen minutes later, the nurse finally arrived to take my daughter's blood. First thing she did was question the ethnicity I had checked off on our registration. It's an optional question. But I had actually, for once, filled out one option. She asked me if:
"Just for the company's paperwork, do you want to add a second background for your daughter?"
"What do you mean?" I asked
"Well, is she mixed with anything?" She replied, looking at me with meaning.
"Such as?" I asked.
"Well, is she part Hispanic?" She said, looking at my dark skin.
To which I replied, "Ashkenazi Jewish," with crisp emphasis on my enunciation.
"Oh, that doesn't matter" she replied.
I didn't say a thing. First of all, her persistant questioning was invasive, offensive on a number of levels, and totally unnecessary. Second, I had already begrudgingly answered the question on the paperwork. Third, in medical terms, Ashkenazi Jewish has a direct relevance for phlebotomists, while Hispanic does not (as far as I am aware). But I did not point that out to her.
Next, she just put the tourniquet on my daughter's left arm. She did not ask which arm I would preferred to draw blood from. So I stopped her and pointed out that since my daughter has an hemangioma on her left index finger, (the finger's bright blue and swollen to twice the normal size with a temporary VASCULAR tumor that babies often have), she might want to try the veins on her right arm instead. "This won't affect it." She said, but humored me and switched the tourniquet to stifle the VEINS on her right arm.
After that, she got out four vials out preparing to take blood from my daughter. I pointed out that four vials of blood is a little bit much for a 24 pound toddler. And she said "that's just what the doctor ordered" and was prepared to blindly follow said orders. [I knew part of her assumption was false and the doctor was not aware of how much blood this combination of tests dictated, because he told me the lead test was "just a finger prick." Instead, Labcorp translated this test into a full vial of blood. ] Then the woman winked, and only filled up half of each vial, indicating that this was purely to placate me. I was that pesky helicopter parent she wished would just stop bothering her and go away soon.
I know I have to be my daughter's advocate at her young age, but this visit to Labcorp really put that to the test. I don't know what would've happened if that woman had taken all the blood she was prepared to do! I will never go back there again, and would certainly not recommend a place to others!!! read more