The Blizzard of '14 Doesn't Stop Medical Foundation Employees

While students and adults watched TV in anticipation of their workplace or school closing, employees at The Medical Foundation didn’t even need to watch the closings as they scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

Instead, they knew that they would be expected to come to work. The Medical Foundation is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. In fact, an employee may even hear the voice of Cliff Claven from an episode of Cheers saying the familiar postal service creed, “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Apparently life as a Medical Foundation is similar to that of a United States Postal Carrier!

Although many managers may have had numerous pages during the early hours from employees who were unable to make it or needed a courier to pick them up, all departments were functioning well during the morning of January 6th.

The fleet of courier vehicles was parked in a single file line in the parking lot so plows could get around them. Many of the vehicles had been brushed off, but many still had several inches of snow stacked on top. Although several local physician offices and surgi-centers were closed for the day, specimens from hospitals and other offices still needed to be gathered and brought back to the laboratory for testing. And while the specimens are usually the most precious cargo transported by the couriers, today there were employees in tow and even a few blood donors.

Each day, blood donors make their way into our Mishawaka, South Bend, Marion and Elkhart Blood Donor Centers. However, with some roads impassable and donors encouraged to stay off the road, the number of units collected have decreased tremendously.

 

Our staff at our South Bend Donor Center was ready and waiting for donors this morning at 8am and many employees who were heading to donate. Outside of our Central Lab Patient Services Center, a lone patient waited for the doors to open at 7:30am.

Although it wasn’t the case, our staff was ready to handle the masses if necessary! Employees around the building exchanged travel stories as more and more employees scanned through the employee entrance. One employee mentioned how her car had been running in the driveway for an hour and when she was ready to leave the ice was still several inches thick.

Another employee mentioned how she starts her day at 2am and her battle from Grape Road to our Lafayette office was an interesting one! She thought that as she got closer to the hospital the roads would be a little better, but that just wasn’t the case. Employees in our Manual Lab were more concerned with the possibility of our President, Dr. Tomec, buying donuts for the crew, than how they might get home or whether the temperatures were warming or turning colder.

But perhaps the Histology Department had the best attitude as they started a scorecard as to which employees would make it in. A little light humor to keep everyone going and a little incentive for employees not to make the list! One employee took a few minutes out to donate blood and was especially happy about the Blondie’s Cookies. Thanks, Steph!

Many employees remembered the Blizzard of ’78 when they trekked into work and thought of stories of how employees helped in other departments and worked extra shifts making sure laboratory testing was able to be completed.

It’s been a long time since then, and I’m sure the employees who were able to make it in today will remember their stories for years to come. The focus of providing good patient care to those in the communities we serve remains our main priority. And for the patients who braved the roads to come in and donate blood, thank you for helping us to add to our decreasing blood product supply. We are still in need of O- and A- donors please pass along the word to everyone you know!