Volunteers track patients' progress, facilitate communication with medical staff, direct families and patients to hospital and community resources, and offer support as families await news of their loved ones. Based at the West Information Desk, Escort Volunteers lead outpatients and visitors to the appropriate clinic or office, chatting and pointing out landmarks along the way. Families also benefit from contact with the volunteer as they wait for news of their loved one. Tuesday and Thursday between 10 A.M. -2 P.M. are priority days. The Hospital Auxiliary Gift Shop in the main lobby offers flowers, balloons, stuffed animals, gift items of all kinds, magazines, snack foods, toiletries, and sundries.
Volunteers run the cash register, stock items, and offer excellent customer service.
The Alex Sawyer House provides close, low-cost lodging and companionship for patients and families far from home. Volunteers register new guests, help keep the House running smoothly, and speak with guests as a friend. Volunteers help staff Information Desks at four entrances, locating patients for visitors, giving directions, escorting visitors and outpatients, and providing excellent, friendly service. Held for parents of pediatric patients, the Pediatric Coffee Hour is staffed by empathic, gregarious volunteers. Talking with each other and the volunteers is a stress-reducer for parents, who spend long hours by the bedside of their sick child.