Patient Navigators: Agents of Creating Community-Nested Patient-Centered Medical Homes for Cancer Care.
Patient navigation is an internationally utilized, culturally grounded, and multifaceted strategy to optimize patients' interface with the health-care team and system. The DuPage County Patient Navigation Collaborative (DPNC) is a campus-community partnership designed to improve access to care among uninsured breast and cervical cancer patients in DuPage County, IL. Importantly, the DPNC connects community-based social service delivery with the patient-centered medical home to achieve a community-nested patient-centered medical home model for cancer care. While the patient navigator experience has been qualitatively documented, the literature pertaining to patient navigation has largely focused on efficacy outcomes and program cost effectiveness. Here, we uniquely highlight stories of women enrolled in the DPNC, told from the perspective of patient navigators, to shed light on the myriad barriers that DPNC patients faced and document the strategies DPNC patient navigators implemented.
Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.; Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.; Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.; Institute for Public Health and Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.; Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Melissa A
MA
Simon
Research Assistant, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Athena T
AT
Samaras
Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.; Clinical Research Associate, Institute for Public Health and Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Narissa J
NJ
Nonzee
Patient Navigator, DuPage Navigation Project, Access DuPage, Carol Stream, IL, USA.
Nadia
N
Hajjar
Patient Navigator, DuPage Navigation Project, Access DuPage, Carol Stream, IL, USA.
Carmi
C
Frankovich
Patient Navigator, DuPage Navigation Project, Access DuPage, Carol Stream, IL, USA.
Charito
C
Bularzik
Executive Director, Access DuPage, Carol Stream, IL, USA.
Kara
K
Murphy
President, DuPage Health Coalition, Access DuPage, Carol Stream, IL, USA.
Richard
R
Endress
Clinical Research Associate, Institute for Public Health and Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Laura S
LS
Tom
Professor, Department of Medicine, Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, Rush University, Chicago, IL, USA.
XinQi
X
Dong
community health partnerships; community-based participatory research; patient navigation