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Standardized Volunteer Opinion Survey (SVOS) OVERVIEW


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SCHEDULE AND DETAILS

Registration for the SVOS is now open for 2023 and will close Wednesday, Oct 25th. The survey will open to volunteers on Nov 6th and close on Dec 1st. Survey reporting will take place in February, 2024. In 2019, over 4200 volunteers from 22 institutions with 45 sites across Ontario participated in the SVOS.

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The Survey Tool

The survey is completed by volunteers online. For those volunteers who do not have access to the internet, hard-copy surveys can be provided/mailed to volunteers by the respective volunteer departments. The hard-copy results can then be entered into the survey tool, however it must be entered by a volunteer to ensure confidentiality for respondents.

This comprehensive survey tool provides a unique opportunity to seek feedback from your volunteers and to benchmark with organizations from across the hospital/healthcare sector.

The goals of this survey support the requirements of Bill 46, The Excellent Care for All Act. This bill stipulates that every organization shall carry out surveys once every two fiscal years for any person(s) providing services within a health care organization. In 2015, the CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association encouraged organizations to participate in this Standardized Volunteer Opinion Survey.

Why Participate

The survey will help you:
        • Obtain comprehensive feedback from your volunteers
        • Identify strengths to champion within your program
        • Identify and monitor problem areas or challenges
        • Identify best practices and learn from high performers within the profession
        • Provide a forum for benchmarking with similar organizations
        • Provide data to support outcomes based measurements, goals and accountability

Survey Cost

The cost structure is remaining the same - a cost of $2.00 per volunteer at a minimum of $300.00 to a maximum $1,750.00 for on-line survey participation depending on the number of volunteers invited to participate. Surveys completed in a hard copy format by PAVRO are expensed at an additional cost. The cost of this survey is substantially less than employee/patient surveys. The administration fee for non-PAVRO members will increase in 2019 from $150 to $175. The first increase since the survey launched in 2007.

For further information please contact us at 416-907-1007 or pavro@pavro.on.ca.

HISTORY

The Standardized Volunteer Opinion Survey is a well researched and designed survey tool that addresses key dimensions for a successful volunteer program. This comprehensive survey tool provides a unique opportunity to seek feedback from volunteers and to benchmark with organizations from across the hospital sector.

The goals of this survey are well aligned to support the requirements of Bill 46, The Excellent Care for All Act passed as part of the Hospitals Act in June 2010. This bill stipulates that every organization shall carry out surveys once every two fiscal years collecting information on the satisfaction of ‘employees’ and ‘other persons’ with their experience working for or providing services within the organization and to solicit views about the quality of care provided by the health care organization. Volunteers play an important role in supporting patient care and services in the hospital sector and their feedback through a standardized survey process provides important information to support volunteer engagement and organizational goals and objectives.

The survey tool was developed by Christine Burych, Alison Caird, Joanne Fine Schwebel, Michael Fliess and Heather Hardie with guidance from a Senior Research Advisor with NRC+PICKER Canada who specializes in patient and staff satisfaction projects and quality improvement methods. The survey was first piloted in 2006 by nine Toronto hospitals. The original project work for the survey was funded through the Department of Canadian Heritage, Government of Canada. For more information on the pilot project and the development of the survey methodology, read

BENEFITS

The standardized volunteer opinion survey provides professional administrators of volunteer resources with an evaluation of their volunteer program and organization from the point of view of volunteers. The report will help you:
        • Identify strengths to champion within your program
        • More effectively monitor problem areas or challenges within your program resulting in improvement initiatives
        • Identify best practices and learn from high performers within the profession
        • Provide a forum for benchmarking with similar organizations on a bi-annual basis
        • Provide data to support outcomes based measurements, goals and accountability
        • Improve the service your department provides to volunteers, patients and your internal customers
        • Respond more quickly to changing volunteer interests and needs in the key areas known to be important to volunteers
        • Align with patient/client, and staff satisfaction surveys

PARTICIPATING HEALTHCARE INSTITUTIONS

The following healthcare institutions have participated in the Standardized Volunteer Opinion Survey in previous years.

Bruyère, Hôpital Montfort, Perley Health, Queensway-Carleton Hospital, The Ottawa Hospital, and The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group. Brampton Civic, Brant Community Healthcare System, Bridgepoint Health, Cambridge Memorial Hospital, Centre for Addiction & Mental Health, Credit Valley Hospital, Deep ,River & District Hospital, Hamilton Health Sciences (Chedoke, General Hospital, Henderson General Hospital/JCC, McMaster University Medical Centre & St. Peter's), Hawkesbury General Hospital, Holland Bloorview, Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital, Kingston General, Lakeridge Health (Bowmanville, Oshawa, Port Perry & Whitby), Mackenzie Health (York Central Hospital), Markham Stouffville Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, Royal Victoria Hospital, Salvation Army Toronto Grace Health Centre, Southlake Regional Centre, St. Joseph's Care Group, Thunder Bay (Hogarth Riverview Manor, Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital, St. Joseph's Heritage, St. Joseph's Hospital), St, John’s Rehab, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Toronto, St. Michael's Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital, Toronto Rehab (Bickle Centre, Hillcrest Centre, Lyndhurst Centre, Rumsey Centre, University Centre), The Hospital for Sick Children, Trillium Health Centre, University Health Network (Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital), West Park Healthcare Centre & Women's College Hospital.

TESTIMONIAL

See what one PAVRO member says about her experience using the SVOS. Read SVOS Testimonial


IS THIS SURVEY ONLY FOR HOSPITAL-BASED VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS?

At this time the survey is tailored to volunteers in an "on-site" health care setting, such as acute care hospitals, complex care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, mental health hospitals, long term care and hospices. This allows to to benchmark similar types of volunteer programs. PAVRO is looking to expand this valuable survey tool to other community settings.

Please contact us at pavro@pavro.on.ca if you are interested in bringing this tool to your sector.

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