Dr Martin was very patient with my questions and answered every one to my satisfaction.
However, the phlebotomy team was not impressive. While 4 patients sat waiting for blood draws, the phlebotomists were in their room talking about Mexican food. Finally, the first man was called and his draw took a long time. Also the same thing happened for the next person. When the phleb called me, she drew a tube that wasn’t needed and she also was not willing to tell me which tests Dr Martin had requested. The team’s method of labeling tubes is also questionable and seems prone to errors. I saw the drawing phlebotomist print the labels and then placed a bag of filled tubes next to the label maker for the other phlebotomist to label, which she did after a while. The labeler dropped one of the blood tubes onto the floor as she was pouring them out of the bag, but it did not break. (She dropped another tube later when transferring my blood from the couch or the drawing phlebotomist’s pocket, but again, it did not break.) The phleb who was drawing seemed to have trouble with her “sticks.” When she drew me, at one point the Vacutainer tube stopped filling and she mentioned, “I don’t know why everybody’s veins are “blowing” today. (To the best of my recollection, that has never happened to my veins in spite of numerous blood draws, including many blood donations at blood banks.) Anyway, thank you, Dr Martin for a thorough and pleasant meeting, but maybe someone should review the phlebotomists’ procedures.
