Quest-ing, Quest-ing, Quest-ing

Once upon a time Thea's photograph was featured in the Quest Diagnostics 2004 Annual Report because of an email I sent to the company complimenting the two phlebotomists at the Princeton location who drew Thea's blood when she was just 14 months old.  It is her small claim to fame, aside from meeting former president Jimmy Carter on her first day in the United States on our flight from San Francisco to Cincinnati.

I don't think Micah will be smiling out from the pages of the 2010 Quest Annual Report.  The Quest drawing station in Somerset on a Saturday is nothing short of semi-organized chaos and the waiting time, even with an appointment, is deplorable.  But we survived, and life moves on.

So this morning I arrived at my desk, powered up the laptop, pulled up Micah's chart in the EMR and there was no lab report.  It was a CBC (complete blood count) and a CMP (comprehensive metabolic panel), not exactly a strain on the system.  Most of these drawn at my office are 'resulted' as the lab calls within 24 hours.

And me being me, promptly went to the lab and asked one of the medical assistants to call Quest and find my kid's blood work, drawn two days ago.

The answer was that no report was available because the specimen was just being processed today.

You. Must. Be. Joking.  48 hours later?  Really?

So I still am shuffling around Micah's pre-op clearance form, waiting for that lab report, seething all the while.

Quest can bite me, and as soon as I can put it in more polite terms, the corporate office will be hearing from me.