TORONTO, December 6, 2002 -- Hospitals in the GTA and surrounding regions derive an average of $6.84 in value from volunteers for every dollar they spend, reveals a study led by York University Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) Prof. Femida Handy.
The two-part study, Hospital Volunteers: An Important and Changing Resource and Costs and Contributions of Professional Volunteer Management: Lessons from Ontario’s Hospitals, investigated the changing role of volunteers in the quality of care in hospitals and the benefits of professional volunteer resource management. The study examined 31 Ontario hospitals. Among the findings:
hospital volunteers tend to be older -- 57 per cent are aged 55 or older;
74 per cent are women;
it is getting harder for hospitals in Ontario to obtain long term commitments from volunteers;
hospital volunteers contributed approximately 70,000 volunteer hours to each of the 31 hospitals studied, representing an average value of $1.26 million per hospital against an average investment of $185,000 to staff and run a professionally managed program;
volunteers are more likely to donate financially than non-volunteers.
Handy says that hospital volunteers contribute to the quality of patient care and ease the workload of hospital staff. "Due to the increasing strain placed on hospitals and the health-care system in general from funding cuts and an aging population, volunteers are more important than ever in maintaining one of Canada’s most cherished systems."
Handy, who collaborated with visiting University of Connecticut marketing Prof. Narasimhan Srinivasan, received a grant from the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy (in recognition of last year's International Year of Volunteers) for the study.
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For further information, including a copy of the report(s), please contact:
| Prof. Femida Handy | Max Brem | Ken Turriff |
| FES | FES External Relations | Media Relations |
| York University | York University | York University |
| 416-736-2100, ext. 22633 | 416-736-2100, ext. 22635 | 416-736-2100, ext. 22086 |
| fhandy@yorku.ca | mbrem@yorku.ca | kturriff@yorku.ca |
YU/114/02
