Quest Diagnostics Lab

Waste of time. Scheduled an appointment for today three days ago. I was here 12 min before the scheduled time, I continued waiting 15 min after my appointment time, when I asked how much longer they told me that two other appointments were still ahead of me, that would have taken me 30 minutes after my appointment time. I would have been late to work so I had to leave. They are either too busy, understaffed, or both. The receptionist in the front did not make it a good experience either, she was very serious and apologetic.

This place was just AWFUL! The girls have the worst tone of voice and customer service … Specially the one with the bright red hair (None of them introduced themselves or were wearing name tags). And to top it off, they even got my labs incorrect as they only did one of the two tests ordered by my Dr so now I have to go back– but definitely not going back to this particular location! PS. Don’t even bother asking to speak to a manager, apparently there is no manager on site… Or at least that’s what I was told.

This place has the most unprofessional, offensively impolite, ill mannered employees. I would never recommend this lab to anyone. My elderly parents, not as mobile as other seniors due to illness, waited two hours just to be ignored by the employees. My father (Spanish speaker) politely asked when they would be next since they called every person after them, and a women named Rose replied to him and said, «I’m sorry I don’t speak Spanish.» Nor did she try to get another employee to help my parents. Afterwards, my father tried to use the little English he knows and she replied with, «I don’t understand what you’re telling me. I can’t help you.» Then turned them away. I’m am complete disbelief of how inhuman they treated my parents. I will never recommend this place to anyone.

Came here because of the proximity to work. Not a good idea. They should open at 7:30 am, they didn’t. They opened at 7:40. There were quite a few people in line, mostly senior citizens. They were speculating the delay in opening time since they have been here before and it seems to be a regular occurrence. Shame on Quest’s office staff.
They opened and the front office attendant quickly got busy. Too many clients but no technicians in sight. One arrived at 7:45 to the «I’m sorry I’m late I overslept…» tune. The other person arrived a few minutes after, front lady just made a comment about them being late regularly. By 8 am they had just serviced 5 patients including a couple of appointments.
My turn came around 8:15, it was bad. The attendant, Silvia, called my last name and got my first name wrong. She called me Orlando. I showed her the sign in, doctor order, insurance card, and my ID. She still claimed I was «Orlando».
She claimed people do fraud and really «had to be sure I was who I said I was». Then she said if I have complains to go ahead and send an email to corporate but good luck since they don’t respond.
Will not return to the location.

I went in right after my doctors appointment to get my blood drawn and the receptionist was very discouraging, she said sign in if you want but the wait is like 3 hours and this is not even our busiest day. Then I asked if they open Saturday’s and she said yes the one on brookshire is open Saturday’s but that their wait is even worse. The tone in her voice was very sarcastic when speaking to me, seemed like she was trying to hint that I was screwed :/​Maybe they should hire more staff instead of practically rejecting patients. I felt bad for the elderly people who were already there waiting hours to get their blood drawn. As for me, I went to another doctors office to get my blood drawn because I could not miss that many hours from work.

This isn’t my favorite Quest Lab but it’s conveniently located around the corner from me. It’s always extremely overcrowded, and I’m not exaggerating when I say extremely overcrowded! Front desk staff is not too friendly and I came to the conclusion that its because they are overwhelmed with work! They really work hard to get the schedule of appointments and numerous walk-​ins that they get on a daily basis out as quickly as possible. If you walk in be prepared to wait a long time, and don’t be rude to the staff that is only working as fast as humanly possible. I strongly recommend that you schedule an appointment, to save some time and grief! It can be done easily online at
Even with an appointment you are guaranteed a long dreadful wait!

So if you work, live, or have a doctor in the Downey area, then you have probably been told to get your blood drawn at either one of two Quest Diagnostic Lab locations in the 90 241.
I have been to the lab over by the hospital quite a few times. It’s not that it’s a bad place to go as long as you have an appointment scheduled (highly recommend that for any Quest visit), but that they are just so overwhelmingly crowded every time I go there. And I’ve been there even on weekends and at various times. Always super busy. They seem to be much faster at entering information into the system, but this does not bother me because I will wait if it means getting my health information done right the first time and not having to be pricked more than I already have to every year. That being said, I have never ever had any issues with any Quest lab or the phlebotomists’ work.
So it’s always SUPER busy at the Quest by the Downey hospital. No where to sit. Kids crying and wallowing on the floor. Twenty or thirty-​something-​old dudes waiting in line that try to cut in front of elderly people and everyone else patiently standing. This hasn’t been the case in the 4 times that I’ve been to the Paramount location. Of course, I made an appointment each time. You should as well.
The office is easiest to access from the back entrance. There is a parking lot back there anyway. To access that parking lot, try entering from Paramount through the parking garage (I never have luck finding a spot there) or use 5^th St from Paramount Blvd. When you go through the back entrance of the building, the Quest lab is on the first floor to the right. You’ll see the glass door.
The other day I had to do a one-​hour glucose test. To spare the time because they wouldn’t even let me leave to drop off some mail at the post office, I brought a book. A phlebotomist showed me the smaller waiting area in the back. It was a little less distracting, however, you could hear all the conversations of people before they were stuck with a needle.
When I found out that the only way they could take blood from our then 9-​month-​old was through her arm (!!!) for required blood work, I was devastated. She was too old for the heel prick. Anyway, I am not sure of her name, but a very nice bilingual (Eng/​Span) phlebotomist showed me how to hold our baby for the blood work. She made it so easy. It also helped that they used a butterfly needle which is much smaller than the ones they use on adults. Of course, our baby girl still cried, but not at all like I thought she was going to. Thank you, ma’am, whoever you are!
FYI — I think this office breaks everyday for lunch at 12:30 PM until maybe 1:30 (??). I am not sure if that’s a set schedule and forgot to ask because I always… MAKE AN APPOINTMENT ONLINE.
And… don’t ever try to call Quest because no human will ever take your call — at least not when I tried to ask questions about our baby. The phone system is automatic, but you can make appointments there too.
Bring your lab sheet, insurance card, and relax. Don’t forget to fast if it’s required.
I recommend the Quest app on iPhone to get your results if you want them. Quest initiated this recently. It takes quite a while for the results to show up in your app, but it’s your right to receive them.
Review #244