Quest Diagnostics

Concerning Quest Diagnostics
3000 Dixwell Avenue, Hamden, CT

My name is Rosana Anoh, and I have been a Quest Diagnostics customer for many years. On Friday afternoon, December 6th before 5:00 pm, my daughter and I arrived at Quest on 3000 Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, CT. The room was empty and there was no one sitting in the waiting room. We signed in and as soon as we were considering sitting down one of the agents came out from her office and asked who is being seen, and we told her. I will refer to her as (agent 1) since I do not know her name. I could right away discern some attitude in the tone of her voice, but little did I know that this simple visit will turn out to be a nightmare. My daughter and I followed her in. Inside, there was another lady. I will refer to her as (agent 2). Agent 2 asked my daughter to sit on the chair so she can start the blood work. While she was getting some tubes ready, agent 1 went to the computer. She started to rush and was bombarding me with many questions and information to enter into the system. Despite her attitude, I calmly gave her all the information she needed for my daughter's insurance, our address, and many more. I felt pressured between giving her the documents she asked for, and answering all the questions, since she did not let me finish.

Agent 1 then said: It is $134, and we do not take cash, okay. It is $134, we do not take cash, okay, repeating herself. I had my HSA card and I handed it to her to collect the money, and print the receipt. She handed the card back with an attitude and she asked me to sign one of the papers she gave. At that time, agent 2 approached her near the computer screen and they both realized that they did not gather all the necessary tubes for the blood work. Agent 1 then asked agent 2: Does that mean that we are going to stab her again? My daughter started to be nervous and scared. I patiently stood there as agent 2 gathered new tubes and told my daughter that she had to extract more blood. The little girl already had a bandage on one of her arm, and she wanted the same arm to be used, but agent 2 suggested the other arm. It was at that moment that agent 1 got up, walked over to my daughter and grab her other arm. These ladies were both standing near my daughter one on each side. Agent 1 took the rubber band, put it around my daughter's arm, and with no warning, she quickly stabbed her. While she was collecting the blood, some of it was dripping. When she was done she went back to the computer to enter some additional information and found out again that she still needed to fill more tubes for vitamin D testing. She walked away from the computer, and approached the girl to get more blood. That is when I decided to speak up and find out.

I asked if this meant that they were going to stick her again with the needle to collect more blood. Agent 1 replied with a loud tone of voice: Yes, Okay. (She added other words but I couldn't distinguish everything that she said, because she was fast and loud). So I said that this is a 12-year-old girl sent to you by her doctor for some blood tests and how many times are you going to stick her with the needle? I wasn't even finished with that sentence when agent 2 cut me off and asked: Are you going to teach us about our job? Agent 1 added: wait I got that one.
Then she looked at me and started to yell louder. All I could hear was first of all... Okay .Second of all okay, and ... Okay at the end of all her sentences. When she was done, I told her to please lower your voice. They could have read the entire paper from the doctor before, gathering all the tubes needed so as to use the one needle on my daughter's arm the first time.

Agent 1 said she needed more blood for the vitamin D and something else... okay. She then went on to say that I do not have to come back to Quest, and that I can go somewhere else. I felt so rejected. Then she blamed it on the fact that my daughter blood was too thick anyways, and kept adding more Okays to what she was saying. I told her that it was not my first time coming to Quest and, I will continue to come back for my blood works. I took my daughter and we walked away. In the car, my poor daughter started to cry and explained to me later that it was so painful when agent 1 put the needle in her skin so abruptly and it was also scary when she saw the blood dripping out of her arm.
I have been a Quest customer for many years, and have been to many of the locations, but never experienced such a poor customer treatment. Is it the atmosphere at the Dixwell Avenue location? Or is it because the upper management personnel were not present? In any case I am reporting this incident to have this issue addressed, because nobody deserves to be treated this way, and especially not our young ones. All clients should be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect at all times.

Sincerely,
Rosana Anoh