Ocean Beach Hospital Laboratory Department

Thank you for choosing our hospital to provide your care. The Laboratory Department and its staff are committed to our Mission of providing you quality and timely laboratory services in a courteous and professional manner. The department is open 24 hours per day, five days per week and 12 hours per day on the weekends and holidays for our patient’s convenience.

 When you are seen by a doctor or other healthcare professional to find out what your health status is, they will order lab test. This may require a urine sample or in many cases, a blood sample. The healthcare provider will order tests by filling out a test request form and ask you to go to the lab to have you give us a urine sample or to have blood drawn.

When you arrive at the lab, located on the Hospital’s first floor next to the Radiology, our  phlebotomy staff will greet you and direct you either to our blood drawing area or a waiting area shared with Medical Imaging (Radiology) Department.

When it is your turn to have blood drawn, our phlebotomy staff will call you back to the blood drawing area. Once there, they will ask a few questions including the following:

1. Your full name?
2. Whether or not you were seen by a provider that day?
3. Whether or not you have had anything to eat or drink since midnight?
4. How are you feeling?

Please answer these questions truthfully, as your answers help us evaluate your status for the test(s) and to insure providing your provider with accurate test results.

After asking you these questions, the phlebotomy staff will prepare you for collecting the blood samples either from a vein (called venipuncture) or from a capillary (called fingerstick). This preparation includes cleaning your arm or finger with alcohol to sterilize the site and then using a needle or a sharp, the phlebotomy staff will begin collecting the blood sample into tubes. Depending on which test or number of tests ordered, determines how much blood our staff will collect.

Usually when the provider is seeing you in the clinic or inpatient unit, they have told you about the tests being ordered and what you need to do in preparation for the blood draw or urine collection. If they have not, please feel free to ask any questions you may have about the tests being ordered.

If the phlebotomy staff is not able to answer your questions, please feel free to ask for a medical technologist to answer your questions.

After your blood is drawn, it will take one to four hours to perform most of the test(s) ordered. The test results will be given to your provider so please do not ask for your test results. By Federal Law and Standard Operating Procedures that the lab staff is not permitted to tell you your test results. 

If the provider has asked you to wait for the test results, please return to the clinic where you were seen. Normally, your provider will ask you to have blood drawn before your next appointment or before you see them in the clinic that same day. Please follow any instructions given to you by your provider; this will be important for test accuracy.

We hope the information provided you in this brochure is useful and gives you a better understanding of the Laboratory Department.

 We are interested in hearing from you, so please feel free to share your comments or suggestions with our receptionist. If you have a concern regarding services delivered, we invite you to contact the medical center’s Patient Advocate at 642-6306 to discuss them. Or if you prefer, either contact us or write to us at: