Navigator Support

What Is Patient Navigation?

Patient navigation is a process by which an individual—a patient navigator—guides patients with a suspicious finding (e.g., test shows they may have cancer) through and around barriers in the complex cancer care system to help ensure timely diagnosis and treatment.

Barriers to quality care include:

  • Financial and economic
  • Language and cultural
  • Communication
  • Health care system
  • Transportation
  • Bias based on culture/race/age
  • Fear

Patient navigation helps ensure patients receive culturally competent care that is:

  • Confidential
  • Respectful
  • Compassionate
  • Mindful of safety

Dr. Harold P. Freeman established the first patient navigation program in 1990 at Harlem Hospital Center to improve access to cancer screening and reduce delays in follow-up. The program showed improved 5-year survival rates for breast cancer patients who were navigated compared to those who were not.

The Patient Navigator

A patient navigator is a problem solver and a resourceful individual. They may be:

  • A trained health care professional (social worker, nurse)
  • A lay individual trained to coordinate services

Navigators help patients by:

  • Guiding them through the treatment “maze”
  • Assisting with insurance paperwork and transportation
  • Identifying local resources (child/elder care, etc.)
  • Offering tips for effective communication with providers
  • Providing emotional support

⚠️ Navigators who are not licensed health professionals should never⚠️

  • Provide diagnoses, treatments, or physical assessments
  • Prescribe or order care/medications
  • Perform direct care (e.g., dressings, therapy, transport)
  • Give opinions about physicians or health organizations

Goals of Patient Navigation

  • Save lives from cancer — ensure suspicious findings are resolved quickly through timely diagnosis and treatment.
  • Eliminate barriers — help patients reach appointments and access needed services.
  • Ensure timely care — move patients through the system without delay.

Barriers such as financial struggles, lack of information, and care gaps often cause patients to miss appointments or delay treatment until severely ill. Continuous care from screening through treatment is critical.

The Importance of Navigation

  • Identifies barriers to care
  • Improves sharing of resources
  • Enhances continuity of care (improving outcomes)
  • Improves quality of services
  • Increases patient satisfaction

Patient navigators must have qualities such as enthusiasm, openness to learning, community connectedness, and energy to serve as compassionate, effective guides for patients and families.

 

Patient Navigator Resources