title: The Patient Care Connect Program: Transforming Health Care Through Lay Navigation.
abstract: The Patient Care Connect Program (PCCP) is a lay patient navigation program, implemented by the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System Cancer Community Network. The PCCP's goal is to provide better health and health care, as well as to lower overall expenditures. The program focuses on enhancing the health of patients, with emphasis on patient empowerment and promoting proactive participation in health care. Navigator training emphasizes palliative care principles and includes development of skills to facilitate advance care planning conversations. Lay navigators are integrated into the health care team, with the support of a nurse supervisor, physician medical director, and administrative champion. The intervention focuses on patients with high needs to reach those with the greatest potential for benefit from supportive services. Navigator activities are guided by frequent distress assessments, which help to identify patient concerns across multiple domains, triage patients to appropriate resources, and ultimately overcome barriers to health care. In this article, we describe the PCCP's development, infrastructure, selection and training of lay navigators, and program operations.
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL grocque@uabmc.edu.
authors.forename: Gabrielle B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Rocque
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Edward E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Partridge
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pisu
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Michelle Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Demark-Wahnefried
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Aras
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Acemgil
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kenzik
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Kvale
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Meneses
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Xuelin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Yufeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Karina I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Halilova
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Bradford E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chambless
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Nedra
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lisovicz
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fouad
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D005853:Geriatrics; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology; D005791:Patient Care; D062526:Patient Navigation; D010358:Patient Participation