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VOLUME 18, NUMBER 25
JULY 2, 1971
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
They Get Letters
Med Center Mail Room Big Operation
MONDAY DELIVERY Postal
worker K. E. Nicholson unloads the first
U. S. nnail delivery for the week. All the
mail on that truck was addressed to the
Medical Center! {staff photo)
CHECKING THE DELIVERY—
—Postman W. H. Moore unloads bags of
mail while mail room manager Ruth
Wagner checks his cargo, (staff photo)
They don't usually have to contend
with the rain, snow, heat, or gloom of
night or even the angry dogs most
postmen have to face.
But even so, the ladies who operate
the Medical Center mail room are just as
dedicated to getting the mail delivered.
All most people see of the mail room
are the 1,000 little boxes spread along the
walls and the ladies at the window taking
packages and selling stamps.
But behind the walls are employes
who spend their day sorting and
distributing thousands of pieces of mail.
"On an average day," explains Mrs.
Ruth Wagner, mail room manager, "we
probably receive 5,000 to 6,000 pieces of
first-class mail and 20 to 25 large bags of
third class mail and packages."
That's a lot of mall to distribute.
But, added to the routine U. S. mail,
the Medical Center office receives and
sorts between 3,000 and 4,000 pieces of
inter-campus mail every day.
The inter-campus mail is delivered to
the Medical Center twice daily from the
main Duke University mail room and also
two times a day from outlying medical
buildings. It's distributed to the mail
boxes continuously.
The mail room sends out U. S. mail
from the Hospital through a metering
system. This permits departments to take
mail to the mail room without stamps. A
code identifying the department is noted
on each envelope and the mail room runs
the letters through a postage meter, keeps
track of the charges and bills the
department monthly. These charges run
between $8,000 and $9,000 each month.
One of the biggests jobs the ladies have
to deal with is getting mail delivered to
patients. "So many of our patients are
here juSt a few days," Mrs. Wagner says,
"and by the time their friends start
sending them cards, they're already back
home." The mail room then checks with
the Admitting Office records to get a
forwarding address.
(continued on page three)
SORTING TIME—Margie Wilkins,
right, Virginia Whitman, center, and
Helen Russell, left, sort first-class mail
arriving at the mail room.(staff photo)
FROM THE INSIDE Geneva
Westbrook of the mail room distributes
letters to the post office boxes most of us
see only from the outside, (staff photo)