Elbert Memorial Hospital has always been a special place for Arelia Lane. The hospital is where she and her four siblings were born, the place where her daughter was born and, for 45 years, has been her work home.
Lane retired from her position as Director of Materials Management March 29 after 45 years of service to the hospital.
Her time with the hospital began more than 45 years ago as she first started working there the summer she was 16. Her father, John Tom Scarborough, a full-time firefighter with the City of Elberton, worked part time for the hospital in housekeeping.
Through her dad, she was put in touch with Vivian McMullen, the former director of radiology, who gave her a job working for the department during the summer.
Lane spent the summer helping register patients and roll them to have x-rays.
Following her high school graduation, Lane married her husband, Randy, at the age of 18 and was searching for a job a year later when she reconnected with McMullen who offered her a part time morning job back in radiology.
She took the job and worked in the department for the next five years.
"I enjoyed working in x-ray because back then, we had a full-time radiologist so the doctors came in every day to check their x-rays and got their reports so you really got to know all the doctors," Lane said. "It was different then. I remember when Dr. [Glenn] Poon started. I remember when Dr. [Dan] McAvoy came. We all joked that we kind of grew up together, those two, because they were the younger ones. Dr. Hanks used to have a really good time with Dr. Poon. He kind of took him under his wing and he really had a good time cutting up with him."
Lane said she recently got to reconnect with McMullen again, share her retirement planes and thank McMullen for hiring her all those years ago.
After about five years working part time in the mornings, Lane said she was approached by Patty Berryman, the director of what was then known as the purchasing department, about working part time for her in the afternoons.
Lane accepted the job and juggled both part time positions for about a year before moving to the purchasing department full time as an inventory clerk.
Over the last 45 years, she's held various positions within the department including buyer, assistant director and was appointed director of materials management in 2009.
"I buy all the supplies for the hospital. I don't buy the food, I don't buy the drugs. Some of the maintenance stuff I do order for them, but that's speciality stuff a lot," Lane said. "But everything for surgery, everything for the ER, all the supplies."
In summing up her responsibilities, Lane said she has a sign hanging on in her office that reads "Nobody knows what I do until I don't do it."
"And that's the truth. This is one of those jobs that everybody thinks 'The supplies are on the shelf. They're just there. Where'd they come from?,'" Lane said. "But if you run out of something, something important, you will have everybody, even sometimes docotors, knocking on your door."
With a historied career at the hospital, Lane said she's seen multiple changes over the years, recalling 11 chief executive officers/administrators, not including any interim leaders.
She's also seen changes in the way supplied are used.
"When I first started in that department, so many things were reusable," Lane said. "Now, we live in that disposable world, so everything's disposable now practically, so it's a much bigger job than what it started out to be."
Lane said the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on supplies was one of the most challenging times of her career.
"While everybody else was out of toilet paper and not able to get their favorite snacks, we just couldn't get hardly anything," Lane said. "PPEs, of course, everybody had that problem. It got to where it wasn't just supplies, it was drugs, it was food. Supplies that you've got to have – IV catheters, you've got to have IV sets. They would allocate it...that allocation was based on what you'd ordered in the past year and so if your vendor that you normally ordered was back ordered and you tried to order from another vendor, well you couldn't get it because you weren't allocated because you'd never ordered it from them before. While so many people were at home working, I was working all day, going home all night, trying to find stuff on the computer."
Despite the challenges, Lane said she'll remember the good times the most and will miss the employees and physicians she's built relationships with over the years.
"The first years before everything was so strict, we had a lot of fun. We had hospital picnics, competitions with each other...I wish I had kept a journal of names and positions they were in. People will come to me and ask me and I say 'I can't remember names, but I remember faces.' There's been a lot. We've had all kinds of kinds," Lane said. "We've always pulled together, we've always supported each other. If anybody had a fire, immediately people were sending out emails, or even before emails, people were going around to the departments with envelopes so we can help them. We've always been good to help."
Deemed the "historian" of the hospital, Lane said often recounts memories through the old pictures lining the halls of the hospital.
"All those pictures you see down that long hall? People will stand there and look at those black and whites and I'll say 'I remember who that person was, I remember that doctor," Lane said. "And the parking lot with the vehicles, that's my car."
While she'll miss working her "9 to 5," the Dolly Parton lover will join her husband, who retired a few years ago from working for the City of Elberton Fire Department after 43 years, in retireement with big plans for the future.
Lane said the pair plans to continue their love of camping, antiquing, traveling, yard work and spending time with their daughter Brooke and two grandchildren, Erica and Eli. Lane said she even plans to take up painting and fishing with her son-in-law Eric.
"I was born in the hospital and just love it. Just seeing it grow and seeing it survive through the times that we've gone through," Lane said as she reflected on her full-circle history with the hospital. "I've joked with people 'I was born here and I'll probably die here, but not sitting behind my desk sending an email.'