Quest Diagnostics

I went there for a simple blood draw. There were only 4 people ahead of me. And I have to wait for more than 1 hour to get the blood draw. I just could not believe they could be so slow! Terrible. I would never go back.

Orland is WONDERFUL! I have been to this lab a number of times and he is always professional, calm, good-​humored, and kind. I have tiny little veins that roll (many techs and nurses have had to stick me multiple times) and Orland always does it once, and painlessly. Quest should do everything they can to take care of this amazing employee.
Note to Quest management: I found out from chatting with Orland that he has been with you for 25 YEARS!!! If you ever decide to honor him for all of these years of great service may I suggest a Phillip Stein watch? I have a number of them and they are so so cool.

Terrible experience. Unfriendly staff. Long wait even when you have an appointment.
Looks like they have one person drawing blood at the entire lab!!!

Orland is very polite and does a great job of drawing blood. It’s not the fastest lab I’ve ever seen, but then PAMF, Stanford and everywhere else always have a line so they probably aren’t any faster. I’ve been to this Quest 5 or 10 times and will keep coming back due to the convenient location. It would be great if Orland had a helper, but he doesn’t. He certainly does the best he can, and does so with a polite demeanor.

Horrendous wait with hardly any patients before me, and the most inefficient process I’ve seen in a long time. My doctor then said thy always lose the orders they fax. And they only look for your order when it’s your turn to go in (vs when you arrive) so if an order need to be resent which apparently is all the time, you lose your place in the queue. Unfriendly receptionist too. Will avoid coming back!

One person show means very poor customer service. I had asked him to send me a copy of results and worked with and made phone calls from his counter to help but ended up needing him and my doctor to complete my request, but no follow through and results. Blood sample went well but urine — no instructions or mention. Had to go back a second time to complete urine samples, had to ask how to do it! Samples done 11÷15÷13 and just learned March 12, 14 that the doctor never got the blood sample results!!! Stopped by Quest to solve the problem but they close at 3 pm. Called ³⁄₁₃ at 11 am but no answer, left a message… looks like I may have to go to Quest in person to find the results and to have them faxed to my doctor…

I’ve never had to wait more than 20 minutes (one time — usually less than 5 minutes) as a walk-​in. Orland is the best phlebotomist. I have really hard to find veins, and he gets it the first time every time, with just a tiny pinch. The parking is a little odd — you park on the other side of the building, but it’s a tiny building, so it’s not like there’s a walk.

Hardly any wait. Very friendly employees. I was in and out with a draw of 6 tubes in under 15 minutes.

I have been here 3 times and it is like stepping into a weird time warp. There is no sense of time… Even with a reservation it takes hours to get served. And the results I get are significantly different than my regular doctor.
There are many people in the waiting room and only one person doing both front desk and blood draw.
The phone rings with no one answering.
Stay away.

The place is just getting slower and slower. If you tell him that you are in a hurry, he will actually make it slower. It’s like you are looking at a slow motion picture if you are watching him work. No effort to try to speed up the process when there are 4 – 5 people are waiting. The worst thing is no matter how many times you have been there, he still looks at you like you just came to the place the first time. Will try to go to another office.

Orland is the only employee here. He answers the phone, signs in patients, and does the draws. So if it’s busy, you’re screwed. But, I came on a Friday morning at 11am and there was only one person ahead of me. I waited 3 minutes and had my draws done 5 minutes after I walked in the door. As a phlebotomist, Orland is pretty good — steady hands and I only felt a slight prick from 2 tubes drawn using a straight needle.

Compared to other reviews I had a good experience. Orland is the only person there so if there is a line you are screwed. When I walked in there was no one waiting although Orland was working with someone else. Being next in line Orland called on me after a 5 minute wait. He spent about 10 minutes going through paperwork and then another 5 – 10 minutes to draw blood and that was it. Not bad. However, a lady walked in a few minutes after me and she was still waiting in the lobby for Orland to finish with me. So, Orland is fine, but your experience will vary depending on when you go.

My experience a few weeks ago with Orland, the phlebotomist/​receptionist at Quest Diagnostics was the worst blood drawing experience of my life. Orland, the only employee present in the entire office, was rude. While there was only one other patient there when I arrived, Orland was in full blown angry panic attack mode and clearly taking out his aggression on whoever walked in the front door. Within less than 10 minutes of my arrival, he snapped at me and lost my insurance information. He also snapped at the other patient when she asked him a simple question, and then Orland proceeded to rant and rave about how he was too busy to help her. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I genuinely feared he was in the midst of a nervous breakdown. I’ve never seen ANYTHING like it. The worst part was when I realized that he was not only the receptionist but also the phlebotomist and he would be drawing my blood. In hindsight, I can’t believe that I let a man in the middle of a meltdown draw my blood, but I did.
I’m still shocked by what a bizarre experience I had at the Menlo Park Quest Diagnostics. I really want to be compassionate and give Orland the benefit of the doubt but, from reading other Unilocal reviews and talking to friends/​family who have had similar experiences with him, it is clear that my experience was not an isolated incident. I’m shocked that Quest Diagnostics employs a man who is notorious for rudeness and bad customer service. I will never go back.

It can be an odd experience, but if you keep a sense of humor the only human present, Orland, is a very capable phlebotomist. Try Monday thru Thursday after 9 a.m. and probably no wait at all. But as the only staffer, Orland probably won’t answer the phone and may be away from the desk for five minutes when you arrive.

Agree with negative reviews. This is the closest Quest Diagnostics place to my house, so I go there. But each time it shocks me again — one employee for everything — paperwork, actual tests, long lines. They have such a good location and lots of space, just need to put more people to work there.
It used to be better some time ago, but last 5 – 6 month it is really terrible.

This is the WORST Quest Lab I’ve been to. I am here now and I have waited almost and hour and the one phlebotomist working today (yes there is only one) has just decided to take a mandatory 10 minute break. The waiting room has 6 patients waiting – most with appointments.
Once back from break, he tells the people in the waiting room that he will be going on a lunch break in 40 minutes and if he doesn’t get to them all, they will just have to come back, or go to another lab in RWC or Mountain View!
I’ve gone to other labs and the most I’ve waited is about 20 minutes – with or without an appointment. There are always two or more people working as well.
I will be going to the other labs from now on.

I have to agree with the negative reviews. Im currently here; have been for 40 minutes. The ONE employee on staff seems more intent on ensuring that all the people waiting know he needs to take his break than on actually serving his customers. There were only 2 people here when I arrived, and they have finally been taken back.
More people have showed up, and two are currently on the phone with other nearby labs… making appointments.
It is well past my «appointment» time, and there’s no sign or indication that I will actually be taken care of before the technician takes his «mandatory» break. I will be leaving shortly, without my draw, and will be following the group that’s on the way to a nearby competitive lab.

I’m surprised by the negative reviews. I usually go right when they open and have never had a problem with delays. I’ve been consistently on my way within 15 minutes. I went here all during my pregnancy (so maybe 8 visits) and the experience was consistent.
The technicians were also in my experience quite good. I am hard to stick and have had nurses at doctors’ offices stick me 3, 4, 5 times with no success. They usually stick me once at Quest… maybe once during my pregnancy did they have to stick me twice.

I agree completely with the two other reviews. Forget about making an appointment as you’ll still wait. I’ve gone to other Quest locations as well as different labs (with no appointment) and have waited just a few minutes (despite full waiting rooms) for my draw. I sat for nearly 30 minutes today with only four people in the waiting room (and they weren’t there for Quest but another lab next door). A woman walked in just as I was going in for my draw and she got right in. This location is VERY convenient for me but I’d rather drive to San Carlos for go.
When I mentioned this I was told in great detail that it takes 10 minutes to enter my information in to the computer. My question is, since I arrived five minutes early, and left 30 minutes later, what was the delay causing the other 20 minutes of waiting?

Preparation: Fasted for twelve hours, recalled «The Trial» by Franz Kafka, Dante’s «Inferno», and «The Myth of Sisyphus».
The fasting was doctor’s orders (prior to my blood draw). The literary recollection was to prepare me mentally for the experience to come — I’ve been here before, but this visit was my worst experience to date:
I walked in the door at 2:15pm. The waiting room was empty; there were three staffers and five workstations behind the counter. Despite this, it took Gertrude (that’s what it said on her name badge) 20 minutes before she was even willing to glower at me and demand my insurance card and the «short form» I had been asked to filled out. She then barked: «Go sit down and wait!» By this point, three other people had walked in. They all signed in, and sat down with the «short form». 20 more minutes go by — no patients have moved into the lab from the waiting room, but now there are six people waiting after me. Gertrude calls out across the room, wanted to know how to spell the street I live on. I walked over to tell her, and she barked, «Go back to the waiting area!» 10 more minutes go by, Gertrude calls out again to confirm my phone number — we do the same dance, and again I’m barked at to go back, sit down, and wait. There are now ten other people in the waiting area.
We went through the whole weary dance several more times, and I was finally taken back into the lab to draw blood at 4:00pm. By 4:05pm, I was free!
As I walked out, I saw that there were now twelve people waiting. Despite all those bored looking staffers, and all the unused equipment, no one else was called to the desk for processing the entire time I was there!
So these morons managed to take a 5 minute procedure, and use it to steal almost two hours from my life. No preparation, literary or otherwise, is adequate to deal with the rudeness and incompetence I encountered at Quest Diagnostics.
This was my last visit — avoid this place like the plague!
Do you think any of those other poor lost souls are still back there waiting? Maybe I should send in Seal Team 6 to deal with Gertrude and her ilk once and for all.