Abstract A31: Patient navigation for culturally diverse populations: The experience of the Moffitt Cancer Center's Patient Navigator Research Program (PNRP)

Abstract The purpose of the PNRP patient navigation is to provide individualized assistance to persons with abnormal cancer screening tests or cancer diagnosis by trained, culturally sensitive navigators familiar with the patient's community. The Moffitt Cancer Center is one of nine NCI-funded sites nationally to study the impact that patient navigation has on four main outcomes: 1) time from screening to definitive diagnosis; 2) time from definitive diagnosis to treatment; 3) patient satisfaction; and 4) cost effectiveness. Moffitt's patient navigators navigated over 640 patients referred from seven community clinics in four counties. The majority of the patients were female (93%), Hispanics (54%), with annual household income under $20,000 (80%), mostly unemployed (47.5%), and with an average of 8.8 years of education. Lay patient navigators familiar with the patients’ culture and language were trained to navigate patients with breast or colorectal cancer screening abnormalities. The navigators were asked to record in a log the barriers that they identified, along with the actions they took to assist the patients address such barriers. Navigators addressed 20 different types of barriers in an average of 10 encounters per patient. This presentation will 1) describe the processes of patient navigation utilized by Moffitt PNRP, including training requirements, and caseloads for patient navigators, and 2) discuss the most relevant barriers that navigators found among medically underserved patients to access cancer health services, and actions taken to address such barriers. Moffitt patient navigators engage in a number of actions to help address unique barriers faced by this population when trying to access cancer care services. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):A31.