My recent Quest Diagnostics experience:
Early May- I go to Quest's website and sign up for an appointment for Covid-19 antibody testing due to severe cough in February that lasted more than a month. I am paying out of pocket. I am 4.5 months pregnant, and while Quest says very clearly on their website I don't need an appointment and can come for "VIP care through our new Peace of Mind program" the first hour of each day at "your nearby Quest location", I sign up for an appointment two weeks out anyway, during that first hour, just in case. Nowhere on the website at the time does it ask for my credit card info - I find that odd, but figure I'll pay on site.
I get a text to confirm my appointment. I confirm my appointment.
May 21 - I arrive at my appointment on time (7:30am), masked and gloved. I follow a very elderly couple inside (the woman can barely walk, has a leg brace, they both wear masks) and stand behind them as they check in. They do not have an appointment. The woman at the front desk (mid length brown hair) reprimands them for this. She says that "starting NEXT Tuesday" you'll need an appointment, which strikes me again as odd, because today is Friday so why should they care about the policy that starts next week? The couple is also clearly older than 60 and we are in the first hour of operation in which case, you know, "Peace of Mind". After making them feel bad, the person checking them in says "we can accommodate you however today".
I check in at the kiosk because I DO have an appointment. It's just after 7:30am.
I'm called in to the lab about 5 minutes later. The lab tech, who is lovely, cannot find my "order". I explain I don't have a doctor's order, that I signed up for an appointment online and it didn't ask me to pay otherwise I would have. I have my credit card with me to pay. She goes outside to the front desk lady and then comes back. She explains I have to go to a different website and pay in advance. She tells me to go get my cell phone (which I left in the car), sign up/pay, and return.
I go to my car and get my phone. This time when I go to the Quest website, it very clearly asks me if I have a doctors referral or if I'm paying out of pocket (this was not the case 2 weeks ago, Quest must have changed their website, good for them I think). I pay and it makes me select a new appointment (it won't let me pay without doing this). So I select the next available time figuring when I go inside they will just delete that new appointment.
I go back inside. It's around 7:50ish am (still the first hour of operation and 20 minutes past the appointment I've already checked in for). The woman at the front desk gives me a look like "why are you here". I explain, thinking maybe she forgot me, that I was just here, I have an appointment but I had to register/pay for the test, and now I'm back.
She tells me that I have to return at the date/time of my NEW appointment which is in a week.
I tell her I don't understand, I HAVE an appointment for that day/morning and have already checked in.
She insists I must come back in a week.
I say, but I'm pregnant (pointing at my very pregnant belly, second pregnancy, majorly showing) and it's the first hour of the day? Even without the appointment the website said I can come in.
She said no, you need an appointment even if pregnant during the first hour. I know this is wrong, but I'm getting flustered and her certainty confuses me.
There are only 2 other people in the waiting room. I say "so even if I wait until after these two people, you can't accommodate me?"
She looks angrily at a list of names and says (you can wait until 11:15am). I'm not even sure what that list is. Maybe it already has my name on it because I have an appointment? It's not a list of people waiting, because there are only 2 people.
I leave. I should have asked for her manager, or pulled up the website and showed her very clearly she was in violation of her own company's guidelines on top of just the guidelines of being an accommodating, reasonable human being. But I leave because I'm afraid I might cry (pregnancy hormones).
I've changed my appointment to another location later this week. But the situation really irked me. This is a stressful time for a lot of people, health providers included and I'll give her that. But's its 7:30am in the morning, there are only 2 people in the waiting room, and you treat old people and a pregnant lady with a power trip when in fact they are in accordance of the rules and you are not? Even if I was wrong, mistaken, confused why not be kind and let me wait until you have seen the TWO other people and then see me? read more