Rin Weddle joined Columbus Regional Health in 1992 and spent all but one month of her 33-year career at CRH in the Emergency Department. For her first month, she worked in the Cancer Center, but then moved to ED Registration. Rin retired from CRH on December 13.
As a patient registrar – scheduling clerk, Rin worked at the front desk of the ED, where she was a familiar friendly face to patients and families. She checked in patients, took them to a room or the waiting area, and also registered them in the room using a wow (workstation on wheels). Born and raised in Columbus, Rin knew a lot of people who entered our ED. “They’ve reiterated to me when they walk in the front door they like seeing a familiar face,” she said. Rin is a hugger, which brought some comfort to them. “I have the opportunity to serve people in our community who are in need or having an emergency and make it the best it can be for them when they walk in the door,” she added.
Rin followed in her mother, Joyce Cookson’s footsteps to CRH. Joyce managed the laboratory for 50 years, and Rin enjoyed seeing her every day. Rin shared the story of when a couple of men played a joke on her mother, and she ended up drawing blood on the wrong person. She then took the opportunity to submit an idea in a CRH contest to have arm bands for patients. She ended up winning a $25 gift card, and patients began wearing arm bands from then on. “Thank you to my mother, I’ve put many thousands of arm bands on patients,” Rin said.
Rin enjoyed the variety of work in the ED and the people she worked with every day. “The people in the ED are kind of a special breed. They know their duties, but it’s more than an ED, it’s a team. From the person registering the patient so they can get medicine to the doctor doing CPR, it’s always been exciting and something I wanted to be a part of,” she said.
Before she retired, Rin decorated a big green heart with the names of all of the ED physicians she worked with over the last three decades to thank them. She has many fond memories of them, including when Dr. Michael Chadwick kept it a secret that Rin was pregnant; Dr. David Gregory for always being special and kind; and Dr. Stephen Champion, whom she misses after his passing in 2020.
Rin also gave special thanks to a few individuals before she retired. To interim CEO Jim Bickel, she thanked for keeping staff on the payroll during the 2008 flood recovery. “My family lived paycheck to paycheck back then, and the fact that Jim Bickel kept me working saved my family,” Rin said. To Marilynn Spurling, she thanked for being her manager for many years; to Julie Bailey, she thanked for walking with her through a difficult time in her life; and, lastly, she thanked her friends at CRH. “They’ve been very special to me over the years,” she said.
In retirement, Rin is going to take a month off and then “hide from the winter” in Florida. She then plans to attend all of her grandkids’ future sporting events.
Congratulations to Rin on her 33-year career!
