Patient navigators work to make the health care system more user friendly and culturally competent for their own clients and for all members of a target community. They coordinate medical services, arrange interpreter services, assist patients in obtaining financial coverage for their c are and facilitate transportation and child care for medical appointments. In 2009 the PHPDA is partnering with Seattle Children’s Hospital to demonstrate the value of patient navigators for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) families in a pediatric hospital setting.

Culturally Appropriate Patient Navigators (2009)

Summary: This 2-year study in partnership with Seattle Children’s Hospital is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of patient navigators for Limited English Proficient (LEP) Spanish and Somali children and their families.

Evaluation metrics will include: missed appointments, clinical outcomes for diabetes, patient and provider satisfaction, number of families assisted and resources needed.

Patient navigators partner with immigrant families to help them learn how to be effective participants in the U.S. health care system. They help assure that inpatient families know how to access resources within the hospital, including interpretation. They also partner with families and the medical team to assure families understand diagnosis and treatment. They are usually present at discharge teaching, and follow up with families 24-48 hours post-discharge, to assure families’ needs are met, and that families are implementing the discharge plan as intended.

Once inpatients become outpatients at the hospital for follow-up and ongoing care, patient navigators assure that families know how to schedule and complete outpatient appointments. Services include teaching families how to make their own appointments with a phone interpreter, and assisting families to arrange transportation in order to complete specialty appointments at the hospital. Patient navigators provide reminder calls to families, to assure everything is on track for their upcoming appointments.

In both inpatient and outpatient settings, patient navigators teach families how to identify questions they have and how to speak up and ask their questions. Families often trust navigators more quickly than providers, due to cultural and linguistic congruence. Families are more likely to share concerns about medications, or their failure to complete medication regimens as intended with patient navigators. Patient navigators help teach families feel more comfortable fully sharing with providers, even when the family’s practice strays from the intended plan of care. In this way navigators are facilitating effective communication between families and providers and are helping families become partners in their children’s care. When patient navigators are satisfied that a family will successfully access treatment on their own, and fully participate in interactions with health care providers, a family “graduates” from patient navigation.

The PHPDA awarded a grant for $117,000 to support three patient navigators, effective July 1, 2009. This is a two-year commitment with a financial match provided by Seattle Children’s Hospital. The program will serve Spanish and Somali-speaking LEP families seen at Seattle Children’s for complex medical care or chronic diseases such as diabetes. Patients will be from Washington State, and a majority will be from King County.

Patient Navigator Report July-September 2009

Patient Navigator Report October-December 2009

Patient Navigator Report January-March 2010

Additional information about the role of patient navigation for cancer patients is available here.