Watch out for THIS problem!!

[Spiky Bugger]

On Monday, I went to LabCorp for a blood draw. It included my routine stuff (including Vit D and Lytes) plus pre-op stuff (like PTT, PT, INR), and things for both (CBC, CMP and so on.)

I need the pre-op results NOW...because I have a pre-op intake appt. at the hospital this morning. I can't get those results online, because (I suspect, but am fairly sure) the Vitamin D and maybe some other Vitamin results aren't back yet. Which means I can't print the results from the other fifteen things that were tested. Which means that when I go to the hospital, they will think I need all those tests that THEY need redone.

Shit.

I have asked LabCorp to fax interim results to the ordering physician (they won't send them to the hospital) so that I can go there and pick up a paper copy and then race to the hospital. But...how fucking ridiculous is that?! And...what if there is a problem with that at the very last minute?

So...from now on, I will have my doctor write SEPARATE orders for my Vitamin D testing (and anything else that takes a week to do) so that I can have immediate access to my other tests.

Something to think about.

AARGH!!!!!

 

[Larra]

Pre-op? Pre-op for what? What did I miss?

 

[star0210]

we have lots of customers who do that for convenience sake. LC doesn't release results until they are completed.
It used to be we had to call to request partials but thankfully now we have online access to them which makes things so much easier and quicker when a customer needs them.

We usually get the regular vitamin D, 25 Hydroxy back in 24 hours...haven't paid attention to the 1,25 Dihydroxy lately, but if my memory serves me correctly that one takes a bit longer.
All of the other tests you mention usually have a 24 hour turnaround.

 

[star0210]

If your PCP's office has a Beacon provider acct, they should be able to acces partials.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

If your PCP's office has a Beacon provider acct, they should be able to acces partials.

Cool...thanks. They are calling over now, because they promised fax did not arrive.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Pre-op? Pre-op for what? What did I miss?

Cardiac Cath, Angiogram, possible stent (but we hope to avoid that), some poking around (testing pressure differences) to see if the fatigue and SOB on exertion are primarily pulmonary or cardiac and figure out how to treat them.

The impetus for all of this is that the diuretics that my heart seems to need REALLY ruin the rest of my life...horrid pain, HOURS every day on Norco and antispasmotics. If I take 5mg of torsemide first thing in the morning, I lose the morning. If I take a second dose of 5mg at noon, I lose the afternoon. (There are days I need twice that amount, but I won't take that much.). Essentially, I'm loaded--and need to stay near a restroom--every day until early afternoon.

As opposed to nice people, I would wish this on my worst enemy...because I sure don't want it.

 

[Larra]

I hope something is found that can be remedied without making your life miserable in the process.

Glad I'm not your worst enemy.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I hope something is found that can be remedied without making your life miserable in the process.

Glad I'm not your worst enemy.

Thanks and LOL!!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I hope something is found that can be remedied without making your life miserable in the process.

Glad I'm not your worst enemy.

PS...and what could possibly go wrong? I mean, somehow, my name and appointment were not on "the list," so I had to be "squeezed in" to the pre-op appointment gig at the hospital...and the lab just plain neglected to draw for two of the listed tests because...well..what might be a good reason for...that? Oh...wait...there is none, is there?

So the hospital had to redraw for the missing magnesium and I will need to be stuck again for the PTH, Intact.

And, @star0210 ...I will be receiving a call from the area manager for LC. Missing one test? Okay, shit happens. Missing TWO? Someone's head was planted FIRMLY up her rear. We got there 15 minutes before closing, which apparently screwed up her rapid escape plan. Her Significant Other was there a few minutes before closing and she was not ready to run out the door, which upset both of them.




I mean...I get it. Young folks, jobs, kids, logistics...stress. Our daughter's BF has his 4-year-old every other week. He needs to be at work AT 6:30 a.m. The little one's pre-school has before school care starting at 6:30 a.m. He cannot be in two places at once. So now my kid, the Non-Mom, has a new responsibility that makes HER grumpy.

She can, choose any two:
A--get the princess to school,
B--get her own ass to the gym,
C--get herself to work at a reasonable hour.

She can do any two of those on the same day...just not the third. And she's not the mom and not even the step-mom, so this logistics problem isn't really hers... and she has gained a bunch of weight starting with when she stopped making it to the gym...and guess who is cranky!

 

[DianaCox]

SB - we used to have that problem too - both my then-husband and I had to be out of the house well before 7 AM for several months (I eventually couldn't stand that schedule, but that is a different story). Our solution was to hire one of the preschool teachers to come to the house at 6:00 AM, and she would get the kids up, dressed and fed, and bring them to preschool with her when it was time for her to be at work. It saved a lot of wear and tear on all of us, for one hour a day of extra babysitting expense.

Celebrity connection: her previous job had been as Bruce Jenner's kids' live-in nanny, when he was still married to whoever it was before Mamma K.

 

[star0210]

PS...and what could possibly go wrong? I mean, somehow, my name and appointment were not on "the list," so I had to be "squeezed in" to the pre-op appointment gig at the hospital...and the lab just plain neglected to draw for two of the listed tests because...well..what might be a good reason for...that? Oh...wait...there is none, is there?

So the hospital had to redraw for the missing magnesium and I will need to be stuck again for the PTH, Intact.

And, @star0210 ...I will be receiving a call from the area manager for LC. Missing one test? Okay, shit happens. Missing TWO? Someone's head was planted FIRMLY up her rear. We got there 15 minutes before closing, which apparently screwed up her rapid escape plan. Her Significant Other was there a few minutes before closing and she was not ready to run out the door, which upset both of them.




I mean...I get it. Young folks, jobs, kids, logistics...stress. Our daughter's BF has his 4-year-old every other week. He needs to be at work AT 6:30 a.m. The little one's pre-school has before school care starting at 6:30 a.m. He cannot be in two places at once. So now my kid, the Non-Mom, has a new responsibility that makes HER grumpy.

She can, choose any two:
A--get the princess to school,
B--get her own ass to the gym,
C--get herself to work at a reasonable hour.

She can do any two of those on the same day...just not the third. And she's not the mom and not even the step-mom, so this logistics problem isn't really hers... and she has gained a bunch of weight starting with when she stopped making it to the gym...and guess who is cranky!

I HATE when phlebotomists do stupid stuff like that. I say it happens often...because, to me, ONCE is too much, but if I were being fair, of the thousands of tests we do, the percentage of mistakes is actually quite tiny. Nonetheless, for the customer who happens to be the one it happens to, it sucks.

Were all of your tests ordered by the same doctor on the same requisition? Is it a requisition you brought in with your or did they send it over electronically?

And yes....give the manager hell. That's the only way to make them aware of what goes on at the ground level. Because we're nationwide, we have a Rep that it local to our region so when we have a problem, my results supervisor calls her and gives her hell...and then she figures out what region and what manager and she calls and gives them hell....and down the chain it goes!

 

[newanatomy]

I hope it all goes well and the can get some good solutions for you!!

 

[hilary1617]

Best wishes, Sue! Hope they find a better treatment solution for you. Sorry for the crazy lab mix-up. I have had lots of issues with LapCorp, but in my neighborhood they're still better than Quest.

Thinking of you! Hil

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I HATE when phlebotomists do stupid stuff like that. I say it happens often...because, to me, ONCE is too much, but if I were being fair, of the thousands of tests we do, the percentage of mistakes is actually quite tiny. Nonetheless, for the customer who happens to be the one it happens to, it sucks.

Were all of your tests ordered by the same doctor on the same requisition? Is it a requisition you brought in with your or did they send it over electronically?

And yes....give the manager hell. That's the only way to make them aware of what goes on at the ground level. Because we're nationwide, we have a Rep that it local to our region so when we have a problem, my results supervisor calls her and gives her hell...and then she figures out what region and what manager and she calls and gives them hell....and down the chain it goes!

Here's how it worked...my past experience with the Quest forms taught me that there were not enough blank spaces available. Med. Assts. always tried to make it all fit and it didn't and it was a big mess with missing Dx codes or missing tests and mostly illegible.

Sooooo...years ago, I took my surgeon's annual lab order, used WhiteOut on his identifying info, and took a copy of it to my PCPs. They loved it, because they could see what I needed to be checked for malabsorption and such and the Dx codes were there and all they had to do was add what, if anything, THEY wanted to add and put a label from their office on it and sign it.

I took the form I had prepared and the order from my cardio to my new PCP. She made sure that everything the hospital needed was already included...it was...put her office info on it, signed it and attached it to the lab order requisition. (It may have been from Q, they have a draw facility in the same building, but I'm not sure. It could have been from LC.)

In MY feeble mind, it was going to be better to have the PCP order it because she could send info to other specialists...that is part of her job, and she is willing to do that. And then I would need to get stuck only once.

NOW...the LC CMP does not include Mg testing. That should not have mattered, since ALL that the lab's printed requisition said was "see attached," and the form I provided says, "CMP (Comprehensive Metabolic Panel) including Lytes, BUN, Cr, Ca, Mg, Albumin, Total Protein and Alkaline Phos." That should have covered it...and the CSR said so!

I'm supposed to get a call from an Area Manager. We shall see.

 

[JackieOnLine]

geez!

Sooooo...years ago, I took my surgeon's annual lab order, used WhiteOut on his identifying info, and took a copy of it to my PCPs. They loved it, because they could see what I needed to be checked for malabsorption and such and the Dx codes were there and all they had to do was add what, if anything, THEY wanted to add and put a label from their office on it and sign it.

brilliant