Munson Medical Center will debut a new portable coffee bar later this month, allowing visitors, volunteers and staff a convenient cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate from a central public location.
Trekking to the cafeteria works many times, but sometimes people just want a quick cup of coffee and don't want to leave an outpatient waiting room area. The self-service kiosk will be situated just outside this waiting room in the main lobby where volunteers will keep everything running smoothly. Days and hours of operation are still being determined, but the bar will most likely be available during times of heaviest traffic.
"I don't know how many times people come to our desk and say, 'Where can I get a cup of coffee?'” said Bill Strobel of Glen Arbor, a volunteer at Munson for 13 years who serves as legislative chair of the volunteer board.
Strobel and coffee bar project co-chair Bill Thompson, also of Glen Arbor, are training volunteers and working out shifts, procedures and operations before the grand opening, the date of which is still to be determined. Offering just one size of cups to simplify the process, the bar will sell flavored coffees, decaf and regular. Individually wrapped pastries will also be sold.
"I think running a coffee bar will be a fun job,” said Thompson, who has volunteered at the hospital for about six years. "We had a fun day when we brought it out and tested it.”
All profits from the coffee bar will benefit hospital programs, just as proceeds from the hospital gift shop have for years. In fact, volunteer hours served in the gift shop over the past five decades have raised significant sums of money while the work of other volunteers helps keep overhead down at the 391-bed hospital.
The volunteer board that oversees the volunteer program and profits is now fulfilling a $500,000 pledge to the new Emergency Room and Trauma Center. In the past, the board has donated $750,000 to the Munson Manor and $25,000 for a room in the Hospice House.
"Without the volunteers, the money would have to have come from somewhere else,” said Strobel.
The community-owned hospital relies on these volunteer efforts as more than 76,000 hours were racked up by volunteers in 2006, said Teresa Stachik, manager of volunteer services at Munson Medical Center. Stachik draws from a roster of 386 current volunteers, with 24 new people joining the January orientation.
"We're looking for new volunteers,” said Stachik. "But we're not wanting quantity but quality.”
In addition to working in the gift shop, volunteers staff an information desk, provide transportation and help in both the Emergency Room and the Intensive Care Unit as well as at the Munson Community Health Center. Volunteers are trained in general hospital rules of confidentiality and service as well as for their specific position.
"Statistics will show that when people come into a hospital, they feel more comfortable going to a volunteer for help,” said Stachik. "And they also feel more comfortable going for the jugular to complain or be upset [with a volunteer.]”
The coffee bar will be another footprint of service that volunteers can offer to both visitors and, indirectly, the community through their contributions of profits.
"The bottom line is that this coffee bar will be a big boost to the volunteer contribution to Munson,” noted Thompson. "We're confident it will be a real success for Munson.”