AfterNest is designed to complement an existing care-transition workflow, not replace it. The hospital keeps clinical ownership while trained Recovery Navigators support approved non-clinical tasks such as transportation, technology, language navigation, appointment logistics, caregiver coordination, and community resources.
Illustrative concept imagery. No hospital partnership or endorsement is represented.
The pilot only works if both sides know exactly where responsibility begins and ends.
Funding supports the workforce, supervision, transportation coordination, training, community-resource capacity, workflow technology, and evaluation required to make the support reliable.
Build a supervised volunteer pipeline with clear role standards before patient contact.
Support transportation and other real-world logistics that can block follow-through.
Help patients navigate technology and non-clinical logistics in a calm, accessible way.
The project plan calls for one anchor hospital, a limited patient group, and a six-month pilot before broader expansion. UCSF Health is the team’s preferred potential partner, but no partnership is confirmed.
Priority groups include older adults, people living alone, lower-income patients, and patients facing language or access barriers.
Referral, escalation, consent, data access, insurance, supervision, and incident response settled before launch.
Structured preparation, clear role boundaries, quality review, and supervisor oversight.
The overall soft-launch pilot runs for six months before a larger rollout is considered.
The first question is whether AfterNest can reliably reach patients, move practical barriers toward resolution, fit the hospital workflow, and operate at a sustainable cost.
The paper and presentation identify grants, community foundations, hospital partnerships, fundraising, sponsorships, and individual donations as potential funding paths. The goal is to avoid relying on a single hospital or donor.