Newspapers / InterCom (Durham, N.C.) / Sept. 1, 1966, edition 1 / Page 6
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Photos by Jim Wallace The Hospital Storeroom Has Orde y ,/i KFfB ■ Over $650,000 worth of stock is issued by the storeroom during the year. INTERCOM-6 ‘•Answering the phone is almost a full-time job in itself,” said Mr. Warren \\agner, manager of the Hospital Storeroom. If varietj’ is the veritable spice that people suppose, then the Hospital Storeroom certainly puts McCormick’s to shame. “We’ve handled almost every thin" here from snakes ... a small python in June ... to snails,” said Mr. Warren Wag ner, manager of the Hospital Storeroom. “We’ve ordered and received a baboon, guinea pigs, tTirtles, ants, mushrooms, oysters, clams, and rats.” “We even tried to order a marcupiaj cat once from Aus tralia, but we couldn’t get one, because they don’t allow them to be shipped out of the country . . . too rare,” said Mr. Wagner after an obliging flip through Webster’s to show a picture of the said cat to the interviewer. (Webster’s informs that the kan garoo belongs to this family and that all the cats are with pouch.) This lively department of many orders is also responsible for keeping a well ordered stock of office supplies and patient care items, as well as fulfilling the hospital’s annual needs for: sheets (almost 8,000), wa.sh cloths (over 12,000), paper scuffs (11,000), i)atient gowns (over 1,900), scrtib dresses (1,500), lab coats (over 3,000), and safe ty pins (over 272,000). Management of the storeroom requires financial skills and very good bookkeeping, for three and three ((uarters million dol lars worth of ef|uipment is or dered and $6o0,000 worth of stock issued by the storeroom during the year. Much of the success of the storeroom is dependent upon the efforts of the three women in the storeroom’s outer office. It is these women who j)ick u]), sort and begin to process the vol umes of mail. (When Mrs. Wag ner, sujiervisor of the Hospital Post Office, was asked how nnich mail is jiosted daily for the storeroom, she rejilied: “Oh 1 eouldn’t begin to estimate . . . but it’s a huge amount.”) Dur ing the year they process l(i,()00 purchase orders aiul i)rice 28,000 re:juisitions for items in stock (])ens, j)encils, paj)er clips, etc.). They also keep a running inven tory of the stock items, reorder items when necessary, and check the invoices when the items are received. (Most of the stock turns over 3'/2 times a year.) In addition to their other du ties, these women are responsible for all of the paper work and the subse(iuent filing. In a year’s time they write about 1,000 trac ers on orders that are overdue and rewrite many of the orig inal orders. “So many of the handwritten orders are illegi ble,” explained Mr. Wagner— adding with a smile: “We have some ferocious liandwriting here in the hospital.” The three women are also re sponsible for answering that seemingly tirele.ss instrument of communication, the telephone. “Answering the phone is almost a full time job in itself down here, ’ ’ said Mr. Wagner drawing reference to the chorus of bells in the front office. When items are delivered to the Hospital Storeroom, orders are checked immediately by one of the three stock men for dam ages and/or incorrect delivery. If damaged or incorrect, the or der is not sent to the person who ordered it until it has been cor rected. ‘ ‘ We check all orders carefully when they are received,” said Jlr. Wagner, “. . . except for snakes . . . that’s one of the things the person doing the or dering checks first. ...” Late in the evening and on The description of all items ordered
InterCom (Durham, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 1, 1966, edition 1
6
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