Six opportunities to get the most out of your patient navigation program

Learn how three organizations used rigorous needs assessments—including mapping patient flow, evaluating physicians’ preferences, and understanding their community’s priorities—as the foundation for their navigation programs.

Additional resources to help you develop your program:

• Sample gap analysis
• Patient experience mapping tool
• Sample breast patient virtual flow map
• Strategy for identifying gaps in care transitions
• Virtua's breast cancer navigation program design
• ACCC’s patient navigation program needs assessment

Review results from our Cancer Patient Experience Survey to understand which services cancer patients value most.

Additional resources to help you understand what your patients need:

• Sample needs assessment surveys 
• Best practices for gathering patient feedback
• Cancer patient and family advisory council toolkit

Use our Navigation Metric Selection Picklist as a starting point to set your program's goals and metrics.

Additional resource to help you set your goals and metrics:

• Best practices for selecting program metrics
• Navigation survey data that show what other programs are tracking

Use our Navigator Responsibility Picklist to align patient navigators’ tasks with program objectives.

Additional resources to help you align the navigator role with your program's goals:

• Navigator background descriptions
• Cancer program survey data on navigator backgrounds and staffing models
• Job descriptions from the University of Virginia and the Association of Community Cancer Centers

Learn about common models for navigation to determine where navigators should focus their attention to best fit your program’s goals.

Additional resources to help you explore various navigation model options:

• In-depth profiles of three navigation programs
• Example of a virtual navigation program
• Example of a diagnostic navigator role
• Example of a lung screening program navigator role
• Example of a culturally-sensitive navigation program

Provide navigators with robust training. For example, you can share two of our studies on best practices for providing comprehensive, holistic care with your navigators: Next-Generation Tumor Site Strategy, Volume II and Tumor Site Centers of Excellence.

Additional resources to help you provide robust training:

• How to support experiential learning opportunities
• Sample knowledge assessment tool
• Training resources from UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Explore external navigator training program opportunities
• GW Cancer Institute's competency training for non-clinical navigators
• Strategies for ongoing training

Get buy-in from key stakeholders by calculating how much time and costs a non-clinical navigator can save your organization.

Additional resources to help you ensure key stakeholder buy-in:

• Best practices for engaging physicians in role development and selection
• Example of how navigation can generate downstream revenue
• Cancer support services benchmark generator
• Help navigators develop relationships with the care team
• Sample business case for an advanced practitioner navigator
• Sample business case for an inpatient navigator

Build relationships with other health care providers in your community by positioning navigators as referral coordinators. Learn how referral-driving navigators can be instrumental in developing relationships with referring physicians.

Additional resources to help you build relationships with other providers in the community:

• How to find community partnership opportunities
• Sample ACCC patient navigation intake and referral forms

Use this discussion guide with your team to both pinpoint opportunities to improve care coordination and brainstorm solutions.

Additional resources to help you improve care coordination:

• Communication and coordination strategies
• Best practices for engaging independent oncologists, ensuring smooth ED transitions, improving continuity of inpatient and outpatient care, and developing collaborative hospice relationships
• How OhioHealth standardized navigation touchpoints across multiple sites of care

Use the Care Team Responsibilities Audit to evaluate and make necessary changes to staff responsibilities.

Additional resources to help you distribute responsibilities:

• Best practices for helping navigators develop relationships with the care team
• Sample care team responsibility diagram
• Sample patient education and orientation form

Identify and manage patients’ biopsychosocial needs by standardizing distress screening and management processes across your cancer program.

Additional resource to help you identify and manage patients' biopsychosocial needs:

• Tactics for distress screening and management

Review survey data to learn how your peers evaluate their navigation programs and see which automated platforms other programs use.

Additional resources to help you assess your navigators:

• How to select which metrics to track
• Navigation Metric Selection Picklist
• Sample tracking documents for volunteer and nurse navigators

Consider strategies to document navigators' impact on revenues, including revenues from patients attracted and retained, as a way to demonstrate the value of navigation.

Additional resources to help you demonstrate the value of navigation:

• Navigation survey data that show what other programs are tracking
• How Montefiore uses a dashboard to track the success of its head and neck navigation program

Consider existing navigator training programs to provide comprehensive, ongoing training.

Additional resource to help you provide training:

• How to support experiential learning opportunities
• Sample knowledge assessment tool
• Training resources from UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
• GW Cancer Institute's competency training for non-clinical navigators
• Strategies for ongoing training
• Best practices for providing comprehensive, holistic care

View the Association of Community Cancer Centers’ tools for implementing a comprehensive patient navigation program.

Discover how UNC used a time study to evaluate how nurse navigators spend their time and re-scope their role.

• Why you should refine the navigator role and job description

Focus your resources on patients with greatest acuity.

Additional resource to help you account for patient acuity:

• Sample acuity scales from Sample acuity scales from Lehigh Valley and Billings Clinic