Patient Navigation Reduces Barriers to Care
A patient-centered team approach can measurably improve the quality, accessibility, and affordability of services provided for oncology patients. Patient navigation in the oncology patient population provides individualized assistance to patients, families, and caregivers to help overcome barriers within the community and healthcare system in order to facilitate timely access to quality health and psychosocial care throughout all phases of the cancer care continuum. Navigator interventions for transportation, financial problems, scheduling, fears and perceptions or beliefs, medical knowledge, comorbidities and social support all affect their optimal care.
CancerNAV supports navigator management of the treatment path for oncology patients thru alerts and reminders that track and manage interventions while interfacing in a seamless and real-time basis with the electronic medical record. This results in reduced time to treatment and patient leakage, increased navigator capacity and team coordination, and provides point-of-care metrics for quality care initiatives and navigation services utilization provides point-of-care metrics for quality care initiatives and navigation services utilization. CancerNAV supports the navigation program with disease-specific checklists that facilitate prioritization, barrier resolution, treatment plan adherence and program metrics.
Read more about barriers to accessing quality care in the US News Health article contributed by Elain K. Howley: How Can Patients in Underserved Communities Access Quality Care for Breast Cancer?