Stage 1 Review
Project Discharge Response Volunteers (Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust) By Kate Crossan
- Title Discharge Response Volunteers (Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust)
- Setting Hospital
- Objective To support patients and staff with discharge-related tasks, ultimately aiming to positively impact on patient flow
Beneficiaries
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Staff
Positive impact on staff wellbeing and time, freeing up their capacity to work on other tasks
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Volunteers
Develop confidence and new skills; have a positive volunteering experience
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Organisation
More supported staff and patients; improved patient flow
Audiences
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Senior Leadership
To raise the profile of volunteering and this role specifically. To prove the concept and make the case for scaling the role to more wards / sites
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Staff
Volunteering staff: To understand how well the role is working and facilitate continuous improvement Clinical staff: To encourage requests for DRV volunteer support, particularly when scaling the role to more wards / sites
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Volunteers
To hear about the difference their support is making to the people they help
Review Design
Project Discharge Response Volunteers (Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust) By Kate Crossan
Outcome model
Data model
Data Collection Dashboard
Project Discharge Response Volunteers (Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust) By Kate Crossan
This project has now completed. Please navigate to the 'Evaluate' stage.
Evaluation Dashboard
Project Discharge Response Volunteers (Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust) By Kate Crossan
Evaluation findings - January 2026
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (WAHT) sought to improve patient flow and experience, with a particular focus on supporting the pace of discharge. With the support of Helpforce, WAHT implemented a Discharge Response Volunteer Service (DRV). This volunteer initiative uses a central infrastructure to deploy volunteers to complete discharge-related tasks across Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Worcester and the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch to improve patient care pathway efficiency and increase staff capacity to focus on clinical roles.
An evaluation of the role was undertaken in November 2025. Please click the link below to review the full findings.
