Urges volunteering at a hospital

I am writing this letter in response to Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer’s March 18 article. As a volunteer for pastoral care in Holy Name Medical Center and Hackensack University Medical Center, I have seen firsthand the difference visiting patients in the hospital can make. However, because of HIPPA privacy laws, people are no longer permitted to come into the hospital to find out who the Jewish patients are without becoming a volunteer at the hospital. Unfortunately, this has kept bikur cholim groups from being able to actually visit patients, unless they become volunteers. I urge those who do have the time to become volunteers at a hospital – which entails an interview, attending volunteer training in some cases, and getting a Mantoux shot – to do so. Visiting can make a tremendous difference in a person’s stay in the hospital. Also, HUMC runs a volunteer program called NODA-No One Dies Alone, where volunteers are called in to sit with a person in the final stages of dying, when no friends or relatives are there.

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