Patient Navigation in Primary Care and Access to Resources in the Community

Summary

Some people living with health problems require extra support to properly manage their conditions, as family doctors are only able to spend limited time in the office with these patients. There are many resources and programs in the community that can provide the necessary time and support for these patients, yet many patients are unaware that such resources exist. Patient navigators have been shown to be useful in helping patients with certain conditions (such as cancer) to get to the resources they need, especially when they have social challenges that make it difficult for them to reach these programs (for example, language or transportation barriers, poverty, or poor social support). This study will look at how helpful Navigators are to link patients at family doctors' offices to community resources. To do this, family doctors' offices in Ottawa and Sudbury will be recruited. All offices will receive training on directing patients to CRs and will be assigned a patient navigator to support patients access CRs. Half of the patients referred to CRs by their providers will have access to the navigator (intervention) assigned to the practice. This study will assess whether access to a navigator increases patients' access to community health and social services compared to usual standard of care. In addition, the study aims to understand whether English and French speaking individuals are as likely to benefit from a navigator in accessing community resources in the language of their choice.

Conditions

• Health Care Inequity, Patient Navigation

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Patient Navigator

Navigators will support patients to access community based resources for healthy living and self-management, rather than providing specific information about health issues. Navigators will teach patients how to identify available and relevant programs to meet their health-related goals, in their language of choice. The navigator will ensure that the individual understands the reason for referral and potential benefits. They will discuss social barriers potentially affecting patients' access to community health resources, and assist patients to prioritize their health goals and relevant resources to achieve these. The navigator will then assist patients to access the community-based services in the language of their choice to which they have been referred. The navigator may assist the patient in making appointments, coordinating transportation, and/or accompaniment to resources as required).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Ottawa

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Ontario Institute of Technology

  collaborator OTHER

• Laurentian University

  collaborator OTHER

• Bruyère Health Research Institute.

  collaborator OTHER

• Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Simone Dahrouge, PhD · Bruyère Health Research Institute.

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-04-01

Primary Completion

2019-03-01

Completion

2019-05-01

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations