UCLA Health Santa Monica Laboratory — Local services in Santa Monica

I am shocked by how far this lab has fallen. I've been here before for blood draws, and it's always a lengthy wait, but this time it was beyond belief because it appeared intentional.

When I arrived, one hour ago, there was one woman working the checkin/registration desk and, fortunately, there was only one person in the line for blood draws - which means the phlebotomists were back there, waiting to see patients. What was reprehensible, is that the person at the check in desk wasn't doing anything. She was not doing her job - she was not working. She was meandering around, talking to her co-workers, chuckling about things, and clearly not interested in registering anyone.

There were 7 people waiting to be registered, and within minutes the one person who was due for their blood draw had been serviced. Which means the phlebotomists were in the back, just waiting. Why? Because the receptionist refused to work.

I asked her why it's taking so long to register people, when all she needs to do is call them up, confirm their name and DOB, and send it through to the other line, for blood draws. Her response was "I'm busy."

In the hour that I've been sitting here waiting to be seen, multiple other people have approached the registration desk to ask what is taking them so long. If the receptionists would do their jobs, this would move through at a reasonable pace. UCLA, you need to investigate this office and see what is happening.

It should not be the case that people are waiting for over an hour just to be REGISTERED to get their blood drawn. Perhaps if you allowed people to stand in line at the registration desk and get checked in, the receptionists wouldn't sit there on Instagram and ignore the...

The earlier you go — the better. Also, parking sucks in this area, so if you're not looking to pay a bunch to park, it's best you include circling around in your expected arrival time.

Tuesday afternoons 3-5pm are street sweeping days for the main street they're on where you can find street parking. Or you can just Uber/Lyft.

See the photo of their app I've submitted to help you get in line prior to arrival. All the complaints on here are mainly avoidable.

Workers are nice. Just not many on making wait times longer, especially for those patients who show up at busier times and haven't used the app prior to arrival.

This last bit is a note mainly for workers, please don't use scented detergent on your scrubs. It's an allergen and you're in close proximity to patients. This didn't happen during my most recent visit but pro-tip because it has happened a couple or so times. Allergy pills can be taken but it takes a bit to take effect and you don't know how allergic someone could...

The parking lot situation is abysmal. I would recommend finding street parking or finding another lab location altogether. I was with two senior citizens who required assistance. I entered this lot and could find no parking. Apparently it is valet parking only? It didn’t say so at the entrance. In any case, I found the valets, but they yelled at me saying lot is full and asked me to leave. There was no LOT FULL signage when I entered. I ended up paying anyway as their parking ticket wouldn’t scan properly either on our way out. The valet parking folks were not exactly polite either so that didn’t help matters. All in all, terrible experience today and I’ll never go back to this lot.

I used the QLess app for the actual labs appointment, so that part was smooth once I figured out an accessible parking...