Sorry Guys for all the WORDS
Thursday, Bob got his annual blood labs and had a 6:30 am appt
We have done this for 20 years.
We went from simply 1st come 1st served, sign in at desk, wait, hand card/ID to LIVE Person. In and out in 20 minutes. We are early birds and were always 1st.
2019 they went to IPAD, type all info. Slowed to a crawl.
No way to type fast on IPAD. Most of the people had no clue how to use the IPAD.
ONE IPAD PER 20 people.
Long Line, LONG wait.
2020 came with MASKS and TWO Ipads, attached to to stands, with a woman at a desk to
ask questions if someone needed help.
Also could register onLINE before coming and type in phone number and name and we were IN.
Problem was there were very few that pregistered.
But we were 1st and done
2021 Same as 2020.
Along comes
2022
Two iPad Built In with odd looking trays that blinked at the bottom.
I had my pre-register BARCODE, says scan to register quickly.
I finally figure out the red glowing thing is the scanner and hold the bar code under it.
It did Not Say, have Drivers License/Ins Card ready on the email.
I scan the screen says place ID on tray.
Bob had it where he was sitting while I fought the lines and machines.
a man sitting next to bob says, you gonna need ID and Ins.
Remember, the room is packed, I am mortified.
I yell bring me your cards. He is deaf, I yell it louder, 25 people raise their eyebrows.
No instructions on where to put said cards.
Or How
I spy with my big eyes the blinking tray.
Screen says place ID in tray
I lay the license down.
screen says other side.
repeat this with insurance card.
this was so simple it was scary, but when a person is mortified, angry and upset the senior moment makes it hard to figure out.
Now for the reason I am telling you this.
NOT to show how dumb I am but what poor service we got.
We were # 4 in line (see below bottom for Why)
There are 5 staff, and 5 with 6:30 appts.
A man goes to one ipad, a lady to the other. The lady zips through and sits down, her name pops up under the clock. Bingo! ONE of the 6:30 has registered.
Another lady steps to the 2nd Ipad
The clock counts down, no one moves, the two that are there
are still there at 6:45, the line is out the door.
Bob has smoke coming out of his ears.
The locked door opens and a woman comes out, I can see the STAFF in the hall because no one hass registered and they have nothing to do until we do.
Stupid Staff #1 says, do you need help?
Now smoke comes out of my ears.
She looks at the mans email and says you are at the wrong Quest, your appt is at the Cortez Facility.
He has been talking into his ear phone following directions from his secretary.
He tells the lady , my secretary doesn't know where that is.
She says neither do I, I don't live here. Use your GPS!
OMG if he doesn't know where he is does she think he can use a GPS?
He leaves, I move to his Ipad, the other lady that was holding up the line was trying to register and had no appt and did not know she needed one....OMW
Bob and I walked out at 7:05, we should have been HOME by 7:05.
The question is...
Why did the FIVE staff not come out to see why the other FOUR 6:30 were not registered?
The names pop up, they call the name, we go back.
how hard could it be to come out and SEE WHY NO ONE IS REGISTERED.
AND THEN..... all the way home I had to listen to Bob rant about the reason we were #4 and the two people who held us up were in front of us, and how stupid they were and this was all MY FAULT.
We Left home at 6:05, but a garbage truck pulled out in front of me from the street I needed, and I could not see the street until we were on it and the traffic was behind me, so I passed the place and this is what we did. X marks LAB. Truck was HUGE bigger than my drawing.
IT WAS DARK! the truck came out of the road I wanted. I did not see the next street because he was blocking it, I missed the next one because Bob was screaming where are you going we will be late plus the BIG truck was blocking the 2nd street to use.
All This made us # 4 instead of #2 in line. OY VEY! what does he expect from a SENIOR Driver?
I am already fretting over what they will have in 2023???????????????
22 comments:
What an excellent way to start the day... a good long snafu to blog about! Seriously though we agree that tech has a lot to answer for when it comes to explaining service ineffeciencies. F's job is infinitely more difficult than it used to be because of the burden of supporting the technology. It should have become the other way around if vision and sense was being used in the development processes. She reckons it's time to leave this rubbish, move to a remote rural area and grow vegetables. xxx Mr T
Bob is indeed so blessed that you know so much tech, and be able to help him with it. I hope he appreciates you, without whom he would not able to do much. But NO, he BLAMES you! I think the same thing would have happened with me, and I would have reacted the same way. Why would the staff come out and help the people when they could stay in the back and have coffee?
that are the days what scream for coffee or ice cream or going back to bed before it turns out really bad.
That place sucks!
Somepeeps need a lesson in customer relations. So far things are not too bad at the lab where I go...orry you had to endure that bad start to your day. I sure hope the remainder of your day will be better!
What a crazy morning that was. That was pretty stupid of the staff to not come and investigate what was holding people up. If you ask me, there was nothing wrong with the old way of doing things, Get there, sign in and they call you.
Hello,
It seems staff is slow and there is a shortage of workers in some places.
Maybe the workers needed their coffee first before helping anyone. It all sounds so stressful. I like being early to appointments.
Take care, have a great day!
Yep!!!! Same here!! And, I use Quest too. Before COVID and the new fangled sign in crap...you'd go in, sign in, get blood drawn in 5 minutes, tops. With this new-fangled crap, it's 30 minute's
Oh dear after reading how your morning went I’m not looking forward to Friday and my appointment at the local Path lab.collection centre
Fasting tests are a pain, so many stomachs grumbling in the waiting room, so many people wondering how long they’re going to have to wait at our first come take a ticket first serve place.
At least it only a ten minute drive from my house and the ‘girls’ are lovely and polite and know my veins don’t bleed easily so go carefully. Hopefully there won’t be any big trucks blocking their driveway
Hari Om
Maybe they figure by next year everyone will have learned how to work the tech - or died in the process... Crikey, we really are losing the human touch, eh? And I'm angry at Bob being angry at you - and you can tell him that!!! YAM xx
Sandra what chaos...yikes I'm sorry. In previous years all pre reg for any of our medical stuff is online. I do both of ours at home and lickety split. Done. The first day
Bryan went to PT, I waited in the car. This facility is associated with his same practice as his PCP. So we thought they would pull up info. When he finally got back to the car he was PO'd. He was handed an iPad to reg. He has 100% no clue how to use an iPad. He said finally the receptionist helped him. All these facilities need to realize many seniors have no clue nor do they want to learn. That is why I bout him a Jitterbug flip phone with a real dial pad. I fear this is going a task he needs to learn. BUT in reality I know he won't
Hugs Cecilia
What a nightmare! I hate it when my Google Girl tells me to turn in 500 feet (for example). Like what am I, a mathematician? If she's so smart, how come she doesn't just say something like, "Right past the Arby's, or across from the Texaco." If he's not the one driving, Tom often gets upset, too. If I hear one more time, "Where are you going?!" ...UGH.
Those sign-in tablets are everywhere these days. I just wish the young people exhibited more empathy for those of us slow to catch on.
I am getting frustrated just reading this...I could do a rant about McD's the other morning. They cannot keep help. No one wants to work these days.
WOW!!!! You did amazing under the circumstances!!! We have blood work done with next to no trouble! Louis Dean gets his done twice a year and I only once. It's done at the building our doctor's appointment is in so it's an all inclusive deal! WHY does it have to be so hard for ya'll?? It doesn't even make sense!!
Oh Vey indeed, Sandra, with all those delays at the lab but also for Bob yelling at you. While I know it must be frustrating for him not to be able to hear clearly, you should not be made the victim of his screaming. Hopefully, he apologized to you later.
I am stressed for you reading this Sandra! What a dreadful time you had, and you deserve a medal, a whole line of them in fact. I would write a letter to this place, telling them what happened. They should consider it a gift because I don't think much of the service. Then write another one to Bob ;)
p.s. we got a whole lot of rain last night, big, big drops. I haven't heard it rain that hard in I can't remember when.
Whew, what a frustrating workout you had at that hour of the morning.
Technology can be difficult for us non-techie people...
Seems to me that customer relations should be a priority to getting everybody through the process.
So sorry it happened.
Sue
Arrrrggggghhhhh! I feel your frustration. Fortunately for this non-techie elder, Hubby is more adept and he is usually with me at all appointments since I can no longer drive. And in our relatively small town, most of my med appointments are with staff I see regularly and we are on a first-name basis. An exception is the lab for blood, urine, or upstairs for the not as frequent mammograms or bone-density scans. As that famous actress whose name I can't remember said, "Getting old ain't for sissies! But even those not so frequently encountered individuals have been unfailingly helpful and polite.
Oops! old-age strikes again?
Hate going to the labs. We only have 2 available (Q and LC) and one is as bad as the other. Seems like they could take into account that we Seniors have major brain fog because: #1 we're fasting and no coffee; and #2 we are dying to use the bathroom in order to give them their precious 'sample.' But nooooo... they take the young people there for drug tests first so they can get to work on time. I sometimes think it would just be easier to die rather than deal with the medical system.
Oh my, what a crazy experience you had. The last time I had blood work was during Covid and checked in through your phone in the car but I just went again on Friday morning. About 15 people waiting. I did the pad thing which was new with the drivers license thing. Since I had an appointment scheduled they took me within 5 minutes of using the machine. I guess a lot of people are walk-ins.
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