Warm hands, smiling faces: Volunteers at Doylestown Health
Doylestown Health’s culture of service shines through its volunteer program, a coveted opportunity to give back to the hospital that has touched so many lives.
On any given day you might find Lloyd and Midge Vansant, ages 96 and 95, walking the halls of Penn Medicine Doylestown Hospital hand-in-hand. The couple has been serving at the hospital for a combined 64 years.
Lloyd and Midge are just two of the hundreds of Doylestown Health volunteers who see time spent in service of others as time well spent. There are about 60 different roles for the 500 volunteers at the hospital, a uniquely high ratio compared to the few thousand staff.
While Penn Medicine welcomes volunteers throughout the health system, the size and scope of Doylestown Health's program and its volunteers make it a gold-standard example of the power of community service.
The volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds and across the age spectrum—from high school students to retired adults. Staff and volunteers work in tandem to provide the highest level of care, echoing the values and history behind the hospital.
“Talking about our volunteers is the easiest part of my job. I want to brag about them because they are worth every accolade we can give them,” said Karen Langley, director of Doylestown Health Volunteer Services.
Using past precedent, today
Walking through the front doors of Doylestown Hospital, patients and visitors will most likely be greeted by the friendly face of a hospital volunteer.
As patients approach the front desk to find their way to their appointment, volunteers point them in the right direction. And as they traverse the hallways, they’ll see volunteers transporting patients and easing their nerves before surgery. These unique volunteer roles are a reminder of the founders’ vision for Doylestown Hospital, linking the hospital's humble beginnings over one hundred years ago to the modern marvel it is today.
The hospital’s fourteen female founders were concerned community members who wanted to help battle an onslaught of respiratory illnesses due to lung-clogging dirt being kicked up in the street by horses and buggies. They raised enough money to clean up the dust, and their neighbors started feeling better—although the work didn’t stop there. They started The Village Improvement Association, and in 1923, they bought property to build the first emergency and maternity hospital in the area.
When the hospital was founded, there were more volunteers than paid employees. Aside from the doctors and nurses, every other role was fulfilled by a volunteer. Community members did everything from registering patients to food service and housekeeping.
“I stand on the shoulders of some very progressive and inspirational women who set the groundwork for how to run a volunteer program,” Langley said.
A volunteer job for everyone
Roles for volunteers include interoffice mail delivery, information desks, patient transport, meeting with patients before and after surgery, reaching out to newly diagnosed cancer patients, and providing companionship to patients on hospice. Four-footed friends can volunteer as therapy dogs.
Volunteers keep the hospital running at tip-top shape, Langley said. That said, every job is ultimately the responsibility of a paid employee. All volunteers report to a paid employee, and if a department cannot run efficiently without a volunteer, that should be a paid role, she said.
When state hospital surveyors have visited to inspect Doylestown Hospital, they have been impressed by both the work done by volunteers as well as the way they work so closely with employees to provide clinical care.
Even some Doylestown Health staff have gotten their start as volunteers, including Chief Human Resources Officer Ed Callahan, MS, LNHA, who started volunteering when he was 14 years old. He went on to serve as chief human resources officer at both Chester County Hospital and Princeton Medical Center. In the latter role, he led the volunteer department, taking what he learned at Doylestown Hospital and growing the volunteer programs across Penn Medicine.
A formative experience for the next generation
Just like Callahan, many volunteers start at a young age. Gianni Perretta is a senior at Central Bucks High School South and is part of the teen volunteer program, which has anywhere from 100 to 120 volunteers at a given time. The program is a sought-after extracurricular for local high schoolers.
Perretta has been volunteering with patient transport since April 2025, after spending a year and a half on the waiting list to become a hospital volunteer.
“There is a waiting list for a reason,” said Perretta. “Between the people you meet and what you get to learn, being here is grounding and gratifying.”
Perretta enjoys patient transport because talking with the patients gives them added support during a vulnerable time. He also likes to practice his Spanish when the opportunity presents itself. “We live in a diverse community and it's important to connect with those patients,” he said.
This experience has helped him decide that he wants to pursue a career in healthcare business operations after leaving high school.
Perretta says the volunteer program benefits everyone involved: “Every patient I meet teaches me something. They think we are helping them, but what they may not know is how much they help us. This experience has been a formative one that will impact me for years to come.”
An added benefit of Doylestown Health's teen volunteer program is the chance to win a scholarship, available to students who record at least 300 volunteer hours before the fall of their senior year. The scholarships are funded by hospital donors, an annual golf tournament, and the sale of baby items knit by volunteers to be sold in the gift shop. Since the start of the scholarship program, it has given about $675,000 to teen volunteers.
A lifetime of service to others
Perretta’s spark of service is the same that kindled in Midge Vansant more than seven decades ago. At 95, she is now supporting staff, patients, and families in the waiting room for the heart and vascular service line, bookending a volunteer career that started as a candy striper in her teens at a hospital near her hometown. She says her favorite role over 41 cumulative years of service to Doylestown Health was helping patients navigate their day for same-day surgery, which she did for nearly three decades. And she estimates that during her 20 years as a hospice volunteer, she wrote 16,000 notes by hand to family members after the death of loved ones.
Lloyd got into volunteering at a nudge from Midge after he retired, and after his first open heart surgery in the 1980s. Lloyd has now had two open heart surgeries, one at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a second at Doylestown Hospital. It’s an experience that helps him connect with patients before and after undergoing open heart surgery, sharing what to expect and ultimately putting them at ease.
He likes to reassure patients by telling them, “99.5 percent of patients who go into open heart surgery at Doylestown Hospital survive it," he says. "A lot of patients don’t know that.”
James Myers is one of those patients Lloyd has shared his experience with. The connection is deeper than medical conditions—Myers is a Vietnam War veteran, and Lloyd served in the Korean War. “I was having some anxiety, but Lloyd reassured me that he had two of these surgeries, and that I was going to be okay. I think I maybe have 40 more years of life now—Lloyd says, maybe even more,” Myers said.
Lloyd also volunteers with patient transport, arguably the most physical volunteer position, pushing patients an average of 2.5 miles each day. That is nothing Lloyd and Midge aren’t used to, though; they exercise six days a week to maintain their strength and mobility.
“Physically and mentally, it is good for us to be here,” said Lloyd. “It reminds you that while you may have some problems, it’s nothing compared to what these people are going through today. We don’t dwell on our problems; it keeps our minds on other people—and it's fun!”