phlebotomist

data analyst

MEDLAB

HellLab is probably the worst place on Earth for any phlebotomist to try to find a decent employment. You will be constantly stressed out, abused and never rewarded or appreciated. The average employee stays with the company for about 6 months, because no one sees any point to work under those horrible conditions and extremely low pay. The recent bankruptcy of the company made it even worse. There is intentional miscommunication between supervisors and employees about the current situation and that's why there is rapid outflow of experienced phlebotomists, who suppose to make money for the company anyway. Supervisors are incompetent and rude and make coming to work every night very stressful. You never know what negativity will come from the supervisor at any moment even if you haven't spoken to her in a week. She only calls to criticize you, and the business cell phone always feels like a heavy bad news messenger in your pocket. The job is really a night job with a day shift pay which is even lower than the competition. Supervisor's attitude is to push you all the time and assure you that if you don't like it, she will hire someone else in no time. That is her attitude that costs this company tens of thousands of dollars monthly, but no one in the company cares. You are just the next one and you have no value for the company regardless of experience. If you are a new employee, she starts pushing you from the beginning until you can't take it anymore and leave in a month or two. If you made it and you are an experienced employee, despite the fact that you do everything in less time and with fewer errors, you are burden for the management, because you might start complaining about the lack of decent pay raise or start to see that managers are disrespectful and incompetent. For the time i worked there, i couldn't figure it out if there is a particular phlebotomist who is considered valuable for the company, if any. Since, there is widespread dissatisfaction among phlebotomists, and they express it all the time, just before i left, the supervisor threatened  phlebotomist to be careful with the use of social networking sites, which she said will lead to employment termination. Yeah, this is how it feels to work for this company and this supervisor - work hard, get paid low, obey and shut up. If you don't like it, they will find someone else no matter how inexperienced.  It is so bad, even team leaders give up, and no one else wants to take the position. It is all about numbers for the supervisor and operations manager, and employee satisfaction doesn't mater although this is the most important for the profitability. New employees work between thirty or forty percent less effectively than experienced employees - i witnessed and experienced it myself. Convert this into money and you will see what treating phlebotomists like livestock costs the company. In fact, the most widespread phrase among everyone is "I don't care" and "I hate this job". That is completely fine with the useless supervisor and operations manager who patch up the numbers every month and keep their jobs at the expense of the employees and the company. They are bad leaders and they aggravate phlebotomists until they leave, and then they try to fix their own mistakes by squeezing every dollar from overtime and operations expenses. Since there is only a single supervisor left for both Kentucky locations (ridiculous), and she failed already and everyone hates her, then this information applies to both labs in the state.  Go and work for the company, see what hell is, and thus every other company will feel like heaven.

First of all, this is a very bad place to work at. Pay is ridiculously low for the responsibilities, and the job is disorganized and very stressful. I only survived there for about six months, which was heroic because most of the employees don’t last that long. It is just a horrific place.  The company got out of bankruptcy and every day it feels like they are going to fall off the boat again. They are saving every possible cent, most of it from employees. Everything is about clocking out on time and preventing overtime. The company has a new owner, who is very shady company and overstates its role as a lab in different states. They don’t want to pay per hour anymore, but per route served, so they can force phlebotomists to work more for the same pay, and not to pay them overtime. It did not feel like a normal job, but more like a detention center. There are two supervisors in Louisville, and it is not clear who is responsible for what. If you go to talk to one of the supervisors, you might be sent to talk to the other one until you completely give up, so in the future you feel that there is no point to try to talk to anyone at all and problems pile up. Management is completely disconnected from employees, because they feel that employees are just dumb idiots who are hired to be exploited and they are easily replaceable. There is only one way of communication, from supervisors to employees. They don’t care to be proactive in relationship with phlebotomists, because they feel like they are the smartest people in the company and they should only give orders. Most of the communication is very stupid over text messages that annoy everyone. Messages are always the same and they start with: “We appreciate you and the work you are doing” and they end with “If you don’t do this.... and this, according to company rules, your employment will be terminated.” Yeah, I appreciate you too. 
   The rule that the client is always right is very true in this company, as it is true that the phlebotomist is always wrong.  As a phlebotomist, I had to work directly with nurses in nursing homes. Many of the nurses were quite mean and ignorant and used to blame us for stuff that we were not responsible for. Then the clueless supervisors called to harass us about the problem. It was very abusive and we were humiliated although we had no idea what was going on. It happened on a regular basis. Manager of operations reports directly to VP of sales, which means that he only cares about the sales and nursing homes satisfaction, but not about employees. If I have to advise someone about employment with this company, it will be a big NO! Please, stay away from it, unless you want to feel abused, ignored and humiliated every work night, and get paid only a fraction of what you work for.

Up at 2am to be on job(nursing homes) by 3am. Draw correct patient according to "draw sheet"(not always correct but you are supposed to "trust your draw sheet"). Check specimen fridge for "other" specimens(urine, feces, sputum, wound cultures, etc). Travel to next nursing home & do same thing continuing on until you are finished with your "route". Then transport all the specimens to the lab where they are accessioned, properly labeled, centrifuged & prepared for transportation to Main Lab for testing. Then you & other phleb's call house calls(ppl who are home bound & can't come to lab for bloodwork) to let them know you are coming to their home to draw their blood. Then you drive to all these HC's and transport those specimens back to lab to again be accessioned, labeled, centrifuged & prepared for transportation to Main Lab. If you are lucky you get all this done by 11:30am so you can go home. BUT if it's your week to do on call, then you have to be ready to go do any STAT's or Same Days from 5pm-12am and are still expected to be able to work your regular hours even if you have been paged out several times or even don't get any sleep from being out. You do not get paid commute miles(50 miles out to nursing home & back home). You have to use your own vehicle. You get gas reimbursement based on average of fuel per gallon(sometimes as high as 0.26 back). You may drive on average 60 to 120 miles a day. You drive in all kinds of weather.
*Communication between team mates is basically non-existent. Between Mgmt & team is non-existent. No consistency in day to day activities. Team meetings are supposed to occur once a month & are scheduled during work hours. Reviews could take up to 8 months or more for them to finally get around to completing.
*You do not get much help from team mates because they want to hurry up & get done so they can get home.
*Hardest part of the job is being married with a family because you are expected to devote your every waking moment to the job.
* Most enjoyable part of the job for me was getting to know the people I met in the nursing homes & the home bound patients.

There is no point to even try to apply with this disgusting company. Very bad work conditions. There is intentional understaffing so they can save on salaries and force current employees to work excessively with no additional pay. You will always feel used and abused. The company has a very bad reputation among nursing homes and it was difficult for me to explain to nurses why Medlab is such a mess and cannot deliver good service. I was very ashamed to work for this company. Supervisors don’t care at all. They pretend that everything is good and they give themselves a lot of credit without any reason. In general they smile and play nice, but they don’t improve anything and they only collect a paycheck. The whole company is like a dying dinosaur that no one moves a finger to cure and everyone just supports it, so it doesn’t completely fall on the ground. Supervisors in this company are ONLY hired if they know someone in management. Hiring supervisors has nothing to do with qualifications. If interviews are conducted, they are to just legally justify the choice already made and it has nothing to do with personal abilities. The last operations manager was hired because he had the right last name. One of his relatives was a company’s founder many years ago and his sister works in Medlab headquarters, so he became the best match for the position. Despite being very nice, he is fake and lacks personal skills, and his only goal is to still from employees and save money on their back by calling it process improvement. He is so bad and senseless that to save the last penny possible he cancelled the water cooler service in the lab because employees are only hired to work and not to waste time and money drinking water on the job. So if you have the bad habit of drinking water during business hours don’t waste company’s time to even apply for a job at Medlab. Shame on you Medlab and shame on you ignorant supervisors!!!!

First, if anyone one here gives a positive review for the Farmington Hills location is probably lying or the managers writing for the company. Second the pay is the highest of 12.50 hourly and miles reimbursement is only 25-31 cents a mile. You can have 12 yrs. experience and another person has 4 and you will be paid equal. Your check will be lovely but its due to working 30-40 hrs overtime not cause you want to cause you are made to. Then they will hit you with the "We have an exact start time but not a finish time". If you are in school, they will not take in consideration and schedule you for days you have to go. They make promises that will not be kept. Its a small place so you will work closely with other staff that if they do not care for you they will not help you. If you have an opinion or stand up for yourself the supervisor will plot against you until you quit or fired. If you are not their friend or tell your personal business you have an attitude problem. If you are good at your job and make a slight mistake that everyone else has made including supervisors you will be the only one written up. If you try to complain it would be overlooked and ignored by higher up cause the supervisor will manipulate them into thinking you are lying. Once you get fed up and find a new job they try to convince you that things are going to change in which they will not. They try to control your life and somewhat your household You will drive your own vehicle until the wheels falls off and all they will say is when are you getting a new car?? Your advancement is not based on skill, experience, or knowledge its based on your friendship and how much you tell on other staff. This is not a place for advancement its a place to loose who you are and if you don't allow them to take that from you, you will be singled out and out the naughty list. I do not suggest this job to anyone, including my enemies.

This is a mobile phlebotomy job that is predominately working overnights starting anywhere from midnight to 2am depending on where your route is. You are completely alone at night driving all over your state, even in the back woods areas where cell service and the walkie talkie type service they give you may both cut out and leave you stranded if you were to break down or wreck during inclement weather, which they make you drive in unless the law tells you to stay off the roads. You travel from nursing home to nursing home picking up orders and specimens and doing the ordered blood draws. They want no mistakes (UTO's), but do allow you some leniency in the beginning. You must be quick, do not stop to talk, eat, or take any kind of break. All of these things are to be done while driving. You have many homes with people who are unable to properly respond with consent and some that have to have the workers there hold the patient for you to get your blood. At the first of every month the doctors order everything on everyone in all of your homes and you end up working 16 to 18 hour days. When you are done with your route you must help anyone else who is not finished until all draws from all homes are complete, no matter what. Many days you end up working 12 to 16 hour shifts even though its suppose to be an 8 hour job and daytime phlebos begin coming in starting about 5-6 am. A lot of times patients refuse the procedure, these don't look good on your record, they want you to talk the patient into having them done even when the doctor has had the same people having daily draws for years for things like hematocrit that hasn't changed. IF they are fully staffed, which is rare, and you get a good route, the money is good and you will get off work at a decent hour and the job is great. But most of the time they are under staffed or a bunch of people call out sick and then it sucks.

I absolutely love being a phlebotomist and at one point in time loved being a phlebotomist at Medlab, but many things have changed and they fulfill very few of their promises. My immediate supervisors are incredible people and try very hard to do so much with what little the company will give them. The company continuously says there is always ways to advance but that is just untrue. very few opportunities open up and they almost refuse to create any new positions even when one is needed. They prefer to work short staffed than to hire people which in turn stresses out the current employees. Also they do not want to pay their employees fair wages. you could have 20 years experience walking in the door and the most they will offer you is $12.00 per hour. you could be their best employee, or save accounts for them and the company will not recognize you in any way and if you expect monetary compensation forget about it. Most of the other employees you work with are good people but you have the few that get away with murder by doing nothing and they continue to hold their jobs. The biggest problem there is that they refuse to pay people what they are worth, they overwork their employees and expect more and more out of them daily without wanting to pay them.

I can’t believe that organizations like this one exist and they are even allowed to operate in healthcare. Isn’t there at least one government agency to stop them and arrest the founders and top management? I will repeat the countless negative comments from other mobile phlebotomists who worked for this company. The lowest in the industry pay ($11.25/hr), stealing from wear and tear on the employees vehicles ($0.30 per mile), overtaking employee’s lives and treating them like slaves, are some of the reasons for the widespread employee dissatisfaction. How can a healthcare company serve the health needs of their patients by allowing their employees to leave quickly, and hire new ones from the street? It is in fact easy to explain! Top management is getting their salaries at any cost and those who are sick and die at the nursing homes don’t really matter. This is indeed the culture of the company. Pay experienced employees low, let them leave, and hire new inexperienced ones. The results are: patients with countless bruises on their arms, blown up veins, stressed out employees, employee’s frequent car accidents, super high employee turnover rate, mid-level management turnover, constant nursing homes complains and so on. It is quite risky to work for the company, because in a case of error due to stressful environment, they will not back you up and you will be liable. It is not worth it the low pay, constant stress, and loss of personal vehicle value.

What can I say!!! That everyone hasn't already said. Well when I started this job they couldn't stress it enough that there will be a lot of driving and they were right there was a lot. (People really erk my nerves when they complain about the driving) They also said that overtime would be on short notice but failed to mention that everyday you had to do overtime. People are starting work at 3am and they were still working at 3pm. It's also a joy to wake up and not know what homes you'll be servicing that day because they always changed it and you could never get a routine going. Most of your co workers are hard workers.... That is until they get promoted to team lead then they forget how to hold a needle or drive their car to help their day runners. They will over work you to the point where you want to break but you also have to know your limit and just say no not today. The manager will try to guilt you into doing extra work for her DON'T FALL FOR IT!!! Because trust me she won't go the extra mile for you. She is a nice and funny person but she can come off as disingenuous. They will put off helping you until your ready to walk out and there are 5 stats on the books. Then the manager will look at your mileage sheet and say you really didn't work too much to be so upset because you only drive 230. Not to mention you worked 12hrs with no lunch and no real break.

I was hired for a shift that was supposed to be 3AM-11AM M-F, Management did not tell me before my first day in the field (after 4 days of orientation) that I had to report to work 2 hours early in order to get to my first facility by 3. So my days turned into 1AM-1PM. My supervisor told everyone in the facility about everyone else's business and the only schedule she could make accurately was her lunch schedule. Our schedules were updated every 2 hours and half of the time you were not notified of the changes. Then ONCALL was forced on me 3 days a week which meant that after working 10-12 hours I had to turn right around and stay up for on call from 8am-4am?!? I was in the field for 36 hours and stuck in locations that were 2 hours from my home but was docked pay because I slept in my car a total of 4 hours broken up in half because I could not go home. We were getting called out for stat urine and blood cultures, HUH?!? But had to go because the clients are mad at whatever excuse she had this week. Management was too concerned with partying and eating than the fact that the employees that were there were severely overworked and miserable. Rules were being changed to accommodate whomever that Phleb supervisor didn't like for the week or day and it got to be overwhelming.
The only time I enjoyed this job was for the first 2 weeks when I was not on the managers radar because she was too busy making the older people who had been there lives a living hell. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Phlebotomist 1 salary reported	$17.66 per hour
Data analyst 1 salary reported	$250 per day

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