Can trained volunteers improve the mealtime care of older hospital patients? An implementation study in one English hospital.

OBJECTIVE: Multinational studies report undernutrition among 39% older inpatients; importantly, malnutrition risk may further increase while in hospital. Contributory factors include insufficient mealtime assistance from time-pressured hospital staff. A pilot study showed trained volunteers could safely improve mealtime care. This study evaluates the wider implementation of a mealtime assistance programme. DESIGN: Mixed methods prospective quasi-experimental study. SETTING: Nine wards across Medicine for Older People (MOP), Acute Medical Unit, Orthopaedics and Adult Medicine departments in one English hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Patients, volunteers, ward staff. INTERVENTION: Volunteers trained to help patients aged ≥70 years at weekday lunchtime and evening meals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The number of volunteers recruited, trained and their activity was recorded. Barriers and enablers to the intervention were explored through interviews and focus groups with patients, ward staff and volunteers. The total cost of the programme was evaluated. RESULTS: 65 volunteers (52 female) helped at 846 meals (median eight/volunteer, range 2-109). The mix of ages (17-77 years) and employment status enabled lunch and evening mealtimes to be covered. Feeding patients was the most common activity volunteers performed, comprising 56% of volunteer interactions on MOP and 34%-35% in other departments. Patients and nurses universally valued the volunteers, who were skilled at encouraging reluctant eaters. Training was seen as essential by volunteers, patients and staff. The volunteers released potential costs of clinical time equivalent to a saving of £27.04/patient/day of healthcare assistant time or £45.04 of newly qualified nurse time above their training costs during the study. CONCLUSIONS: Patients in all departments had a high level of need for mealtime assistance. Trained volunteers were highly valued by patients and staff. The programme was cost-saving releasing valuable nursing time. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02229019; Pre-results.

Valuing volunteers: the impact of volunteerism on hospital performance.

BACKGROUND: Volunteers have been present in health care settings for centuries. However, there is little empirical evidence regarding the impact that volunteers make on hospital performance. Since the 1990s, hospitals in the United States have had a great deal of pressure to produce high-quality care at minimum expense. These pressures have enhanced the benefits of using volunteers in a hospital setting. PURPOSE: This study utilized multiple regression analysis to explore the impact of the use of volunteers and the level of professionalism of volunteer programs on cost effectiveness and patient satisfaction in hospitals. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Hospitals throughout the state of Florida were invited to participate in the study by completing a brief questionnaire about their volunteer programs. Performance indicators of volunteer cost savings and patient satisfaction scores for 50 Florida hospitals were analyzed using data sets from the American Hospital Association and Agency for Health Care Administration along with data obtained from a questionnaire. FINDINGS: Results indicate that the use of volunteers offers significant cost savings to hospitals and enhances patient satisfaction scores. DISCUSSION: Larger volunteer programs appear to enhance patient satisfaction while containing costs. Future research opportunities related to the impact of volunteers and volunteer professionalism on other hospital performance measures are suggested.

Volunteers. Time is money.

An audit of volunteers' work at a district general hospital showed its value to be more than 127,000 Pounds. For every 1 Pound the trust invested in volunteers there was a return of 5.57 Pounds. The research showed that volunteers gave 35,464 hours of their free time to the hospital last year. The national average is 27,000 hours per trust.

Financial issues for hospital auxiliaries.

Auxiliaries can serve a more important financial role in today's environment than ever before. Hospitals are searching for positive avenues to promote themselves to the community and to generate more financial support to help offset the losses created by decreasing inpatient utilization and payments from third-party payers. Auxiliaries should recognize that their financial role has never been more important to the financial viability of their hospitals. Auxiliaries should communicate closely with hospital administration so that both organizations work to achieve compatible goals. Auxiliaries should be operated more like businesses, which means establishing goals and objectives, preparing effective budgets and interim financial statements, thinking and planning innovatively, and establishing adequate inventory controls, investment policies, and pricing structures. If auxiliaries follow these steps, they will not only succeed in providing more financial support to hospitals than ever before but will also receive the recognition and support they deserve for their effort.