Hospital’s Auxiliary Volunteers Making a Difference

BY KATIE BRITT
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER

Sometimes, they go home really tired. But almost always, the volunteers at Abingdon’s Johnston Memorial Hospital said, they go home believing they’ve made a difference.

That difference earned national honors for the Johnston Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, a group of more than 100 volunteers who received this year’s Volunteer Excellence Award for Community Outreach from the American Hospital Association.

“We felt very humbled and honored by” the award, said Beth Owens, the president of the auxiliary who accepted the honors on behalf of the team during the hospital association’s April meeting in Washington, D.C.

Among those volunteers is Wayne Lane, who has been a fixture in the hospital emergency room for five years now. An amateur radio operator, he started volunteering when the hospital installed a radio in its emergency room. Now, Lane helps with the radio as well as with patient check-ins and other activities.

“It takes a lot of understanding and watching,” Lane said. “It’s a little hectic at times. You come home tired some nights.” 

But “I’ve enjoyed it,” he said, “and learned a lot.” And, he points out, there are many different areas in which the hospital could use a bit of extra help.

Vicki Svoboda, a patient access representative, said the volunteers help the hospital run much more efficiently.
“They do a lot,” she said. “We’d go nuts without them.”

Owens, who volunteers in the hospital gift shop and sometimes as a patient representative, said that initially, the auxiliary did not realize that only four hospitals in the country received the excellence award.

“It was really special,” Owens said. “We had no idea how special.”

The association annually recognizes four programs with what it calls its HAVEs, for Hospital Awards for Volunteer Excellence. The honors are designed to highlight “the extraordinary efforts of volunteer programs and the positive impact their contributions have on the patients, hospital, health systems and the communities they serve,” the association states on its Web site, http://www.aha.org.

Other programs honored this year were: Memorial Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., for community service; Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Mich., for in-service programs; and St. Joseph Health System in Tawas City, Mich., for fundraising.

The Johnston Memorial Hospital team won for community outreach and collaboration, based on a history of community-minded projects. Chief among them is the project the auxiliary took on to build a $13,000 wellness trail around the Coomes Recreation Center in Abingdon, in conjunction with the town recreation department.

The auxiliary also:

* gave $27,000 to indigent patients to buy prescription medications;
* awarded $12,000 in scholarships to students pursuing careers in health care;
* provided $60,000 toward the purchase of the JMH Blood Mobile;
* worked with Cardiovascular Associates, P.C., to buy automated external defibrillators for the community, as part of Abingdon’s Heart Safe Community program;
* and bought several hundred copies of the Five Wishes Living Will booklets to distribute to the public free of charge.

“Our auxiliary and volunteers are integral to the success of JMH,” Sean McMurray, the hospital’s CEO, said in a written statement announcing the award. “They provide important resources and outstanding service to our hospital, patients and community. We greatly appreciate and value all of their contributions. ”

Sheila Boyd, the hospital’s director of volunteer services, said she is honored to work with the team at Johnston.

“It is my privilege to work with such a strong group of community leaders who unselfishly give of their time for the benefit of the hospital, its patients, and the community,”  Boyd said.

Owens said she and other volunteers are just as grateful for the opportunity.

“It’s a good place to make a difference,” Owens said. “You are blessed and better for it in the long run.”