November 4, 2024
Porters at London Health Sciences Centre cover a lot of ground on a daily basis. Frequently walking 20,000 plus steps in one day, they are well known for moving patients to and from appointments. However, they also transport items required by other team members to provide care, including supplies, equipment, and specimens for testing. Below is a candid glimpse of the behind-the-scenes work porters do every day at both Victoria and University Hospitals.
Angela Hair
Angela is taking different items to various areas of the hospital, including Critical Care Trauma Centre, Neonatal Intensive Care, and Sub-Acute Medicine. This delivery took 40 minutes and close to 5,000 steps. Deliveries from our partners in care to inpatients units are done multiple times a day.
Pat Harris
Porters are called to deliver STAT or urgent items directly to the floors or bedside. Pat provides a quick response to an ad-hoc request for urgent calls.
Aaron Tecle
Every day, porters deliver blood work and other specimens to various areas of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine for testing to help diagnose and treat patients. Porters also deliver urgent or STAT specimens and bloodwork to the lab to have them tested. This ensures a quick turnaround for test results. Aaron is dropping off a stat blood sample at the Core Laboratory at University Hospital.
Jackie Johnson
While responding to multiple calls for pick-up and delivery of items, including broken equipment for repair and specimens to testing, Jackie pauses to locate a wheelchair for patients. With a smile on her face, she undertakes a side quest to help out a family requesting a wheelchair to get to an appointment.
Kofi Byer
Kofi takes different items to various units at University Hospital. Hourly deliveries of non-urgent items to inpatient units ensure the units are stocked with the products they need. Porters also pick up non-urgent specimens while on the delivery run. While the specialty clinics may differ from those at Victoria Hospital, the need to have porters deliver on time for our care partners is the same.
Carl Glover
Taking supplies to members of the London Health Sciences Centre Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre. These time sensitive deliveries support excellent patient care provided by the LHSC Verspeeten team.
Scott Apps
Porters deliver packages that arrive at the receiving docks to locations all over the hospital. Delivering items ranging from office supplies to life-saving equipment. Deliveries are made regularly throughout the day to all areas of the organization.
Jackie Johnson talks with colleague
After picking up a package, Jackie enlists the help of a colleague to see if they can discern where the package was to be delivered. After some investigation and a trip to the mail room to enlist help from the HMMS team, the package is successfully delivered.
Chantelle Browning
Porters like Chantelle are responsible for ensuring both inpatient and outpatient units have the clean linens they need to provide care for patients. They are also responsible for picking up the soiled linen from the units to be taken for cleaning.
Liza Larsen and Lianne Seymour
Porters work in collaboration with the Biomedical Engineering department to ensure fixed equipment is returned to the care areas. Porters are also responsible for identifying and collecting equipment for preventive maintenance to ensure the safety of those we serve
