Volunteers fill important role at medical center

There’s a growing department at Kalispell Regional Medical Center that’s not on the hospital’s payroll. And most of its members are dressed in pink.

The first time Kathy Taylor met a hospital volunteer, she was in an admittance waiting room. Her husband had disappeared behind hospital doors. They had been spending a lot of time at Kalispell Regional those days.

“Our valley is so blessed to have this facility. But it’s overwhelming when you’re emotionally upset and you come in and you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing, what will happen, or where anything is,” Taylor said. “It’s really nice to have someone at the door saying, ‘How can I help you?’”

For Taylor, a man in a blue vest was that person. As she waited for her husband, the volunteer would offer her coffee, give her directions throughout the hospital from each department, and talk with her — whether it was about the errands Taylor had that day or the man she was waiting on.

When her husband passed away, Taylor still felt drawn to the hospital.

“I kept thinking about the care we received when my husband was in dire straits,” she said. “Without knowing there was a whole team of volunteers here, I called asking if there was anything I could do.”

She wanted to be one of those vest-wearing volunteers — the people who subtly act as the connection between visitors and the employees at the medical center.

“Many times when people come into a hospital, they don’t really want to be here. They’re coming for emotional reasons or physical reasons,” she said. “As volunteers, we want to help them through that.”

FOR 20 years, Kathy White Carlson has been one of those volunteers. When she joined the hospital, she was one of roughly 50 recently retired women to take on the task.

Now, the center has 140 volunteers.

“It’s still mainly women, but we have 31 men, seven couples and people from 30 to their mid-90s,” White Carlson said, the hospital’s Volunteer Board chair.

She said each week, about 115 volunteers rotate through the center, working as greeters at the front door, stationed at the front desk or in the gift shop.

Some volunteers are trained to wander through the emergency room, intensive care unit or admittance waiting rooms to quietly meet someone’s needs as they wait for news regarding a friend or family member.

“That could be handing them a cup of coffee, or pushing a wheelchair from one department to the next. Or maybe just keeping an eye on the family to point them out to the doctor when he comes out with information,” White Carlson said.

White Carlson said she’s watched the hospital grow from her information desk. Her position has changed from pointing someone to an office down the hall, to grabbing a campus map and directing people to buildings down the street.

Yet, the goal is still the same.

“We volunteers each have our niche — I could never work in the ER, but I know how to help people to where they need to be,” she said. “And we have a code ... When someone comes in, you ask how they are, not why they’re here. You maintain confidentiality, you act professional and you smile — a lot.”

IT’S BEEN four years since Taylor’s husband’s death. She’s been a greeter at the hospital twice a week for more than three years.

The first day she returned to the hospital as a volunteer instead of a patient’s visitor, “it was hard, but just that first day,” she said. “After that, I got past it, and made my hospital family.”

Every Thursday, she and White Carlson share the responsibility of meeting visitors in the medical center’s main lobby. Taylor stands close to the automatic doors and White Carlson sits behind the information desk.

“When someone walks in, you can read their body language and know why they’re here — if it’s just a checkup, or for a loved one who isn’t doing well, you know,” Taylor said. “And you try to ask how you can help before they have to ask you for help.”

“It’s not a lot”, White Carlson added. “But it’s their first impression when they walk in the doors.”

To learn more about volunteer opportunities at Kalispell Regional Medical Center, go to https://www.krh.org/foundation/ways-to-give or contact the Volunteer Services office at 752-1781 or jan-sheri@krmc.org.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.