LOW PAYING CLINIC WITH LOUD UNRULY SUBJECTS

[labpro]

This clinic is the one of if not the lowest paying clinic available for study participants. The staff allows the participants to stay up half the night, playing music, talking, being loud and when they are told to quiet down the ruffians they recruit don't take it seriously as the clinic doesn't
have a fining policy. This seems odd as they are the lowest paying clinic and should jump at the chance to fine participants and hold back some of their money. I have heard of participants qualifying for check in only to be told at the last minute the study was full. Hopefully in the future they'll get better but for now its a tough place to do a study.

[travelingrat]

i must have missed soing ... what clinic are you referring to?

[hoyas1fan]

I agree this is the lowest paying place. the study participants are rude and loud. they keep u up all nite. the nurses let certain people do as they please and threaten other people with no punishment at all according to the rules.. they let certain people curse at anyone and do as they want. i have witness this few months ago before the new year came...

[labrat1]

Sounds like Celerion NJ

[2wipes1cup]

I agree with the OP as well. I did a 21-day stint there, and it was quite a chore. The TV room is more cramped than the lobby for screening. One "dorm" features 20+ beds lined up barracks style, with three feet between each bed. A guy several beds down had a bass heavy, Bose iPod docking station that somehow "slipped" through bag search, and he would start playing it after the first round of vitals at 8 a.m. The staff did nothing, and a few even asked him what he was listening to. It made the din of everyone else's cell phone treble-dance-music sound delightful in comparison, and it was always a joy when he chose to watch TV instead.

They have three bathrooms for each gender, each with a shower and toilet. No rules to regulate the shower-taking, so you often have to wait to pee while three people are taking long showers (as if they have dates to go on). The staff is scheduled to work crazy overtime one week, then not scheduled to work at all for nearly as long...many of them would complain about this. Needless to say, moral isn't high.

We were given a stipend check and told not to cash it yet because the account had been closed due to fraud. This became a huge headache. I get that these things happen, but the girl (mis)handling the issue was a joke. It took the intervention of the study coordinator to finally get some answers about it.

PLUSES:
One of the main guys there, Kevin, was the only person who enforced rules around there, and the hooligans knew it. It was always mellower when he was around. The study coordinator, Pam, is a sweetheart. She has a great rapport with the subjects and puts a lot of work into the place. Sadly, she can't carry the load by herself.

The blood draws went pretty smoothly, the food is average. The staff was nice overall, but this place is sloppily executed.

Overall, don't due a study here unless there is nothing else available, and try to keep your stay brief. There is no place to get peace and quiet at this place. And the pay really does stink: $150 a day, plus the usual completion bonuses. My 21-day paid $3800, which wouldn't be bad without the headaches. I saw d*mn-near the same study at Covance in Daytona: same sponsor, same IRB, same letterhead and font on the consent form. Yet Covance was paying $250 a night with way better amenities.

It looks like someone at Seaview is getting rich and playing us for suckers.

[mike]

That pay sucks ***, I just completed an easy 18 day with one follow-up study at WCCT and I made $5000. We need to boycott these dumps that want to put you through a crappy, difficult study, in a shoddily run clinic; and then they pay you chump change.

Assholes.

[dextermorgan]

LOUD AND UNRULY perfectly describes 90% of the people at Seaview...They have NO COMMON SENSE or COURTESY for other people at all. Last time i was there this cuban guy was having his friend assist him in shaving off all his body hair with a trimmer right in the middle of the 25 person dorm! like seriously WTF!?!? leaving all his hair on the floor when done of course...you would think he'd go in the bathroom to do this (remember, no common sense)...but this is the kind of **** that happens there on a daily basis and passes for normal.
And if they're playing domino's or watching soccer you will be in the noisiest environment ever in your life.

[labrat1]

Lab rats have to speak up against this type of social environment in research facilities. If it does not involve physical symptoms of study meds, it is hard to complain about the misbehavior of other rats. I once complained in a clinic about how other volunteers were acting up in ways mentioned in this discussion, loud, noisy, cursing, showing diespect, being threatening etc. One nurse said that if I don't expect it then I should not be doing studies because such behavior is normal and usual in research facilities and it has always been that way, and she even said soing very much to the effect that I should not think in a harsh way about volunteers who are obnoxious and poorly mannered because the volunteers who behave this way cannot help themselves and they are just being themselves and they are suffering when they are kept indoors without much to do.

I say that then they are the ones who are not fit to be volunteers and should not be picked. I mind my manners and try to do the study right and be quiet and not bother anyone. Why can't I expect the same courtesy from others?

Also there is this strange irony and legal limbo thing that volunteers don't give up their rights by signing up for a study and though there are rules of proper in-house behavior in writing, when volunteers don t actually obey those rules, the staff do not really enforce the rules because it is like forbidding volunteers their freedom of speech.
In fact the nurse I mentioned previously here, she did say that if the volunteers are loudly cursing sand saying offensive things such as "*****" and "f--k" etc, it is a matter of free speech. But then if I started shouting how there are a lot of unclean Hispanics and blacks in the place, I bet I would not be told that it is my freedom of speech but that I am trying to cause a riot.
The heck with such stuff. If the staff do not enforce rules of proper behavior then the staff are not doing their jobs the right way and are avoiding their responsibilities and are running a substandard clinic

[2wipes1cup]

@ dextermorgan: Hey how's it going, bro! It's me, your boy from Seaview and NOCCR! I thought it was you, and then I saw your review of High Point and I was like "that's him!"

[diamond]

I agree. Boycott places that pay so low. Its less than minimum wage, if you figure out the hours/pay ratio.