Organization Background
Opened as a 302-bed hospital in 1991, the Lucile Packard Children”s Hospital Stanford is both
nationally ranked and internationally recognized, and is the heart and soul of Stanford Children”s
Health. The hospital is devoted to pediatrics and obstetrics and the original building has six centers
dedicated to providing comprehensive services in key obstetric and pediatric areas: brain and
behavior, cancer, heart, pregnancy and newborn, pulmonary and transplant. It relies on an army
of 700 volunteers – most of whom are either elderly retirees or from the University”s population of
aspiring and current medical students – to help in carrying out its mission. Lucile Packard Children”s Hospital Stanford is dramatically expanding and opening a new hospital in December 2017 and
needed to double its volunteer ranks (to 1,400) to meet this expanded need.
Key Highlight
One of the reasons Sterling Volunteers became the choice of the Lucile Packard Children”s
Hospital Stanford was its ability to easily integrate with many common Applicant Tracking
Systems (ATS). In this case, the hospital was moving to the Samaritan Technologies volunteer
management platform. “We were shopping for database management, and choosing between
Samaritan and another vendor,” says Maryellen Brady, Director, Volunteer Services for the
hospital. “Sterling Volunteers was able to step in and integrate with Samaritan easily.”
Background
The hospital began doing thorough background checks in 2001, which originally included fingerprinting
through the Department of Justice and the local sheriff”s office as well as a database search. While the
hospital was generally happy with its background checks, its volunteers hated how the fingerprinting
process delayed their onboarding. “Our volunteers were the ones begging for us to change our
background checks,” says Maryellen Brady, Director, Volunteer Services, Lucile Packard Children”s
Hospital Stanford. “They were so sick of the lengthy process. And the customer service by the staff at
the sheriff”s office wasn”t always the best.”
Solution
Sterling Volunteers was introduced in February 2016 as a standalone background check option while
the hospital finalized the purchase, setup and migration to Samaritan. Once the ATS system was up
and running, Sterling Volunteers was integrated into the platform and linked up with the hospital”s
volunteer database. The process was painless for Ms. Brady and her team. Since the hospital was
also in the process of hiring an additional 400 staff, it was imperative that both new employees and
volunteers go through the same screening process. Sterling Volunteers was able to customize the
hospital”s screening solution so that a quarterly sanctions check could be run all volunteers.
Results
Since implementing Sterling Volunteers as it screening provider, the hospital”s volunteers have been
very receptive to the fast and intuitive platform. “Ease of use is a big plus,” says Ms. Brady. “And the
pricing has been fair and the customer service has been fantastic—our account representative has
always been amazing and responsive.”
Ms. Brady and her team have also benefited from Sterling Volunteers” regulatory compliance
expertise. “We did have some issues with a state senate bill about running background checks
on minors,” says Ms. Brady. “Sterling Volunteers was right there with best practices and legislative
information.”
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