Some labor experts argue many for-profit hospitals are using unpaid workers to benefit their bottom line.
Mount Pleasant, S.C. — Most of the 30 volunteers who work at the 130-bed, for-profit East Cooper Medical Center spend their days assisting surgical patients — the scope of their duties extending far beyond those of candy stripers, baby cuddlers, and gift shop clerks.
In fact, one-third of the volunteers at the Tenet Healthcare-owned hospital are retired nurses who check people in for surgery or escort patients to a preoperative room, said Jan Ledbetter, president of the hospital’s nonprofit Volunteer Services Organization. Others relay important information from hospital staffers to expectant families. “They’re kept extremely busy,” Ledbetter said. “We need to have four of those volunteers a day.”
At hospitals across the U.S., volunteers play an integral role. So much so that when volunteers were barred from East Cooper at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff nurses assumed the volunteers’ duties in the surgical waiting room. Like paid employees, hospital volunteers typically face mandatory vaccine requirements, background checks, and patient privacy training. And their duties often entail working in regular shifts.
At HCA Healthcare, the world’s largest for-profit hospital system, volunteers include aspiring medical providers who work in patient rooms, in labs, and in wound care units, according to the company’s magazine.
Over centuries, leaning on volunteers in medicine has become so embedded in hospital culture that studies show they yield meaningful cost savings and can improve patient satisfaction — seemingly a win-win for hospital systems and the public.

Truthout