Developing a Disease-Site Specific Oncology Patient Navigation Program

In 2020, this community-based cancer program started laying the foundation for a disease-site specific oncology patient navigation program that would grow exponentially over the next 2 years. In addition to a rapidly growing patient caseload, nurse navigator responsibilities grew extensively, largely due to increasing physician and system support of the program and role. To date, this 3-person oncology nurse navigator team has received over 2100 referrals from more than 259 providers. 

Guest:

Stephanie Bonfilio, MSN, RN, OCN, ONN-CG

Oncology Navigation Manager

St. Elizabeth Cancer Care

“Patient experience is such a huge part of what we do in cancer care. We survey our patients who are actively being navigated to see if the care we are providing is of value to them…over 94% of our patients said that having a nurse navigator on their care team increased their overall experience.”

Read more in “Developing a Disease-Site Specific Oncology Patient Navigation Program” in Volume 38, Number 5, Oncology Issues.

Resources:

·       Population Health Navigators: An Innovative Approach for Supporting Underserved Patients

·       Increasing Clinical Trial Accrual Through the Implementation of a Clinical Trials Navigator

·       The Oncology Pharmacy Navigator

·       Developing an Acuity Tool to Optimize Nurse Navigation Caseloads